(data privacy and data protection, GDPR)
• Data Privacy vs. Data Protection (Rick Robinson, Ipswitch, 1-29-18) "In a nutshell, data protection is about securing data against unauthorized access. Data privacy is about authorized access — who has it and who defines it. Another way to look at it is this: data protection is essentially a technical issue, whereas data privacy is a legal one.
• Hands off my data! 15 default privacy settings you should change right now Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Switch, WashPost, 6-1-18) Say no to defaults. A clickable guide to fixing the complicated privacy settings from Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple.
• A guide to the security of voice-activated smart speakers (Candid Wueest, An ISTR Special Report, Symantec, Nov. 2017) Voice assistants and smart speakers: What you need to know. What are voice assistants and smart speakers? Siri, Alexa, Amazon Echo Dot, Google Assistant, etc. What are the risks? For example: "The voice purchasing option is enabled on the Alexa assistant by default, which means that anyone can use the assistant to order goods if the linked account is a Prime account with one-click ordering enabled." The mimicry of the curious child, the tale of the mischievous neighbor, the case of the talking television, the clever burglar's tricks. What to do to protect yourself.
• What does the US government know about you? (Privacy.net)
• House passes bill undoing Obama internet privacy rule (Harper Neidig, The Hill, 3-28-17) The House passed a bill blocking internet privacy rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2016. "The FCC rules would have given consumers greater control over what their internet service provider can do with their data by requiring those companies to get permission from customers before using their information to create targeted advertisements." A fairly detailed explanation of the issues.
• States stumble on internet privacy (Elaine S. Povich, GCN, 5-21-18) "When President Donald Trump signed the repeal of Obama-era internet service provider privacy rules last year, states rushed in to craft privacy legislation of their own. But most of those 2017 and 2018 bills have floundered, done in by the same business and industry forces that opposed the federal rules. The Obama-era rules were intended to restrict internet service providers from selling or disseminating users’ personal information without permission. But industry representatives said those rules were burdensome and would stifle innovation and curb growth. Trump agreed." If you don't want ISPs (internet service providers) tracking your data, sign up for avirtual private network (VPN).Net neutrality: Who owns the internet?Europe's new privacy law will change the Web, and more (Nitasha Tiku, Business, Wired, 3-18-18) On May 25, 2018, a European privacy law starts restricting "how personal data is collected and handled. The rule, called General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, focuses on ensuring that users know, understand, and consent to the data collected about them. Under GDPR, pages of fine print won’t suffice. Neither will forcing users to click yes in order to sign up."
• Authors, Are You GDPR Ready? (Authors Guild, 4-26-18) From writers' viewpoint. Links to several other pieces on GDPR. As the AG Web Services team explains it: "GDPR refers to privacy laws that were put in place in the EU. If visitors to your website come from the EU, then your website needs to follow these laws. As you can’t control whether someone visits your website from the EU or not, everyone needs to comply with these laws. The basic premise of the laws is simple: do not collect or share personal information about website visitors without their *expressed* permission." The AG Sitebuilder websites are complaint, BUT you must be sure to do two things:
"Newsletters. If you have a newsletter on your site, you must allow people to opt-in and out of your newsletter. Sitebuilder newsletter has always had a double opt-in approach. Users must sign up for the newsletter and then opt-in again from an email they receive in their inbox. If they don’t opt-in, their email address is not activated and you cannot send them newsletters. As long as you send emails and manage subscribers from Sitebuilder, then your newsletters are GDPR compliant.
"Google Analytics or any other 3rd party software. Sitebuilder is great in that it allows you to add 3rd party code to your website. Many of our members use Google Analytics tracking tools to get better stat data about visitors to their websites. However, Google Analytics uses cookies to track visits, and the use of cookies is something that you must put a notice on your website about if your website uses them. If you are using cookies, we recommend posting a notice on your site. If you have already migrated to the refreshed Sitebuilder software, then the easiest place to add this notice is in your footer. (If you want more information about migrating to the refreshed software, please let us know). Otherwise, you can just add a notice on your site by using a text box."
• Groups.io's privacy statement (as an example of more transparency on what, how, and why the site uses your data and to comply with the GDPR). Here's what Groups.io is about.

• Everything you need to know about a new EU data law that could shake up big US tech (Arjun Kharpal, CNBC, 3-30-18) "When it comes to user data, consumers will have more control. You will be able to access the personal data being stored by companies and find out where and for what purpose it is being used. You will also have the right to be forgotten. This means you can ask whoever is controlling your data to erase it and potentially stop third parties processing it. Another provision allows people to take their data and transfer it to a different service provider."
• What the G.D.P.R., Europe’s Tough New Data Law, Means for You (Adam Satariano, NY Times, 5-6-18) The law strengthens individual privacy rights and, more important, it has teeth. Companies can be fined up to 4 percent of global revenue — equivalent to about $1.6 billion for Facebook. The internet’s grand bargain has long been trading privacy for convenience. The downsides of that trade-off: The system is opaque and ripe for abuse. Getting a Flood of G.D.P.R.-Related Privacy Policy Updates? Read Them (Brian X. Chen, NYTimes, 5-23-18) What you should look for.
• Google loses landmark 'right to be forgotten' case (Jamie Grierson and Ben Quinn, The Guardian, 4-13-18) Google cases are a battle between right to privacy and right to know. One UK businessman wins legal action to force removal of search results about past conviction; the other businessman doesn't.
• How Close Is An American Right-To-Be-Forgotten? (Rebecca Heilweil, Forbes, 3-24-18) While 88% of Americans support this so-called “right-to-be-forgotten,” the prospects of similar legislation or court decision in the U.S. are dim.
• What Is Data Privacy and Why Is it Important? (Cory Warren, LifeLock, 8-23-17) See 5 simple tips.
• How to Protect Your Personal Data (Charity Navigator)
• Guide to data protection (ICO, UK's independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.)
• A "Dark Age" for the Constitution at U.S. Borders (Knight First Amendment Institute) In response to a Knight Institute FOIA request, the government released a 92-page spreadsheet containing over 240 complaints from travelers whose electronic devices were searched at the border.
• Privacy Complaints Mount Over Phone Searches at U.S. Border Since 2011 (Charlie Savage and Ron Nixon, NY times, 12-22-17) The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation havefiled a lawsuit in Boston arguing that a warrant should be required to search such devices at the border. The Trump administration asked a judge to dismiss the case (Ghassan Alasaad et al. vs. representatives of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement).What Is VPN For? VPN Benefits Explained (Claudio R., Anonymster, 1-18-17) A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is basically a series of computers networked together over the Internet, so you bypass the server of your ISP (internet service provider), so that nobody can snoop into your personal affairs. Explains how VPN encryption and protocols work and how they can protect your internet connection. Reviews best VPN systems.
• The Motherboard Guide to VPNs (Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Motherboard, 3-24-17) The easiest way to hide your internet browsing from your provider.is to use a commercial Virtual Private Network or VPN. VPNs add a layer between your computer and the internet, forcing your connection to go through another server before going out onto the internet, and hide your browsing habits to your ISP.
• 5 best VPNs in 2017 (The Best VPN) 30 service providers rated by speed, logging policies, and encryption.
• The Motherboard Guide to Not Getting Hacked (Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai and Joseph Cox, Motherboard, 8-2-16) The basic steps to take to keep yourself, and your data, safe online.
• I Know What You Think of Me (Tim Kreider, NY Times Opinion section, 6-15-13). Reason No. 697 Why the Internet Is Bad — the dreadful consequence of hitting “reply all” instead of “reply” or “forward.”
• EPIC Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools (there's a whole new world here!)
• Internet privacy: Is it overrated? (Jessi Hempel, Fortune, 8-26-11) Hempel weighs in on Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way we Work and Live, Jeff Jarvis’s argument that we all need to loosen up over Internet privacy.
• Privacy Journal (Robert Ellis Smith's newsletter on personal privacy, online and elsewhere)Privacy.
• Scroogle, an ad-free Google search proxy that prevents the searcher's data being stored by Google (as explained on Technically Speaking Radio).
• Disconnect Search: Google In Private (Thomas Claburn, Information Week, 3-24-14) Disconnect app delivers search engine privacy, with "pay what you want" pricing.
• EFF's Top 10 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy (Stanton McCandlish, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 4-9-02).
• Tor Project (a browser that allows you to search the Internet anonymously, or pseudonymously)
• Anonymizer International(Torproject.org) "keeps your online activities safe, private, and secure"
• Do Internet-Connected Toys Pose a Privacy Risk? Tanya Rivero interviews Georgia Wells, WSJ video, 12-7-16) Advocacy groups allege that Internet-connected toys, including several children's dolls, pose a privacy risk to consumers. Is Genesis Toys recording children's voices and what they say, without parental knowledge or consent?
• Edward Snowden Explains How To Reclaim Your Privacy (Michah Lee, The Intercept, 11-12-15)
• A simple step to make news sites more secure (Susan McGregor, CJR, 12-5-16) "The vast majority of mainstream news organizations still publish to HTTP domains, making it impossible to guarantee either their readers’ privacy or the authenticity and accuracy of what those readers are seeing. News sites that publish on HTTPS domains, however, can guarantee all of this–without additional effort from users." A good explanation of information I didn't realize I needed!
• Legalized sale of browser histories should worry journalists (Susan McGregor, Columbia Journalism Review, 4-12-17) "The blowback has been intense to President Trump’s decision last week to back a congressional rollback of recently adopted FCC privacy rules—rules designed to protect web users from the reuse or sale of their online traffic histories without their explicit consent....The first step is for journalists and media organizations to privilege the use of HTTPS websites and services as much as possible: While your ISP can still see which domains you’re connecting to (such as duckduckgo.com), they cannot generally see which individual pages you’ve visited. Similarly, news organizations should protect their readers by implementing HTTPS on their own sites.
• KeePassX (a free, open source, cross-platform password manager)
• HTTPS Everywhere (Electronic Frontier Foundation) HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox, Chrome, and Opera extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.
• AxisPro's Loss Prevention Guide (this PDF booklet provides basic info on defamation, defamation, invasion of privacy (more complex than you might expect), trademark infringement, and copyright infringement).
• Online privacy for journalists by Michael Dagan (PDF) How to safeguard your communications, browsing, and data, from any unwanted "big brother" or intruder--indirectly how to protect a source.
• Your Digital Trail, And How It Can Be Used Against You (Daniel Zwerdling, All Tech Considered, NPR, 9-30-13) NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting are documenting just how vivid the typical person's digital picture has become — and how easy it can be to access it. Co-reported by G.W. Schulz from the Center for Investigative Reporting. This is first part of a four-part series examining your digital trail and who potentially has access to it.
• Your Digital Trail: Private Company Access (Daniel Zwerdling, NPR, 10-1-13) Data we voluntarily provide online — such as on dating websites — may not stay with that site. While not always obvious, websites commonly allow other companies to track user behavior.
• Your Digital Trail: Does The Fourth Amendment Protect Us? (Daniel Zwerdling, All Tech Considered, NPR, 10-2-13) Could government agents really get access to all your private data in less than a minute? Experts say no but warn we are moving in that direction.
• Your Digital Trail: Data Fuels Political And Legal Agendas (Daniel Zwerdling, NPR, 10-3-13)Private attorneys are easily getting access to defendants' emails and texts. All it takes is a subpoena, which any attorney can do. Former Nixon administration attorney John Dean and a North Carolina divorce lawyer warn that if you think you have nothing to hide, think again.
• How Privacy Vanishes Online (Steve Lohr, NY Times Technology section, 3-16-10). Using bits of data from social network sites, researchers gleaned names, ages and even Social Security numbers.
• Who owns your Twitter post? Judge Rules That Protester Can’t Oppose Twitter Subpoena (Colin Moynihan, City Room, NY Times 4-24-12). Tweeter Harris "lacked the standing to oppose the subpoena because Twitter’s policies required that he agree to grant the company a 'worldwide, non-exclusive royalty-free' right to distribute messages, which are publicly viewable. He labeled “understandable, but without merit” the defendant’s contention that he had a privacy interest in his tweets."
• Data Marketers Know What You Bought Last Summer (Elise Hu, New York Public Radio, 9-4-13) Marketing technology company Acxiom is letting you see the data marketers have and use to advertise to you. Check out what they know about you, your household, your education or income or purchase preferences.
• Give Me Back My Online Privacy (Elizabeth Doskin, WSJ, 3-23-14), Internet users tap tech tools that protect them from prying eyes.
• How to Invent a Person Online (Curtis Wallen, Atlantic, 7-23-14). Is it possible to be truly anonymous in the digital world?
• Can’t Hide in the Cloud (Vikas Bajaj, NY Times, 6-15-13). Most users could do more to safeguard themselves, but no software or service can protect them fully from determined government agencies, criminals or hackers.
• Google Says It Collected Private Data by Mistake (Brad Stone, NY Times, 5-14-10, about Google's answers to questions from regulators in Europe about Street View).
• Privacy Subtleties of GMail (Brad Templeton)
• Forget Privacy: What the Internet Knows About You by Jessica Bennett (Newsweek 10-22-10) and The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets by Julia Angwin (first in Wall Street Journal series on the fast-growing business of spying on consumers). Watch your back!
• 10 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Online (Michael Fertik 10-22-10)
• How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet (Kate Murphy, Personal Tech, NY Times 5-2-12). "You know that dream where you suddenly realize you’re stark naked? You’re living it whenever you open your browser." Lots of practical tips for keeping your private messages private.
• The Candidates Are Monitoring Your Mouse -- privacy advocates are worried (Heather Green, BusinessWeek, 8-27-08)
• How a Single Student Is Transforming Facebook’s Privacy Policy In Europe (Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo, 2-8-12)
• The Death of the Cyberflâneur (Evgeny Morozov, NY Times Opinion, 2-5-12) Mr. Schrems was intrigued and somewhat rattled. He wasn’t worried about anything in particular. Rather, he felt a vague disquiet about what Facebook could do with all that information about him in the future.
• Internet Privacy *Wikipedia, a helpful overview of issues -- check its Notes.

• The Motherboard Guide to VPNs (Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Motherboard, 3-24-17) The easiest way to hide your internet browsing from your provider.is to use a commercial Virtual Private Network or VPN. VPNs add a layer between your computer and the internet, forcing your connection to go through another server before going out onto the internet, and hide your browsing habits to your ISP.
• 5 best VPNs in 2018 (The Best VPN) 30 service providers rated by speed, logging policies, and encryption.
• Best VPN Services for 2018 (Comparitech.com). Torrenting anonymously, using Kodi, accessing US Netflix, Hulu or other geo-restricted services and protecting your privacy online are all common reasons for using a Virtual Private Network, more commonly known as a VPN. There’s no single outright best VPN service for everyone as each provider has pros and cons and which you choose should depend on your intended use. Tested for speed, privacy, security, usability and compatibility across multiple devices.
• Tunnel Bear VPN Tunnel (browse the Internet wherever you are, around the globe, privately--your data secure, your IP address hidden behind a bear)
• WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool)

• Privacy Law for Copy Editors (slideplayer of presentation notes, Arati Bechtel). Bechtel explains privacy ("the right to be left alone") and gives examples (citing cases) of four types (or torts) of invasion of privacy: publishing private facts; intrusion; appropriation; and false light. With class exercises.
• HART: Homeland Security’s Massive New Database Will Include Face Recognition, DNA, and Peoples’ “Non-Obvious Relationships” (Jennifer Lynch, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 6-7-18) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly building what will likely become the largest database of biometric and biographic data on citizens and foreigners in the United States. The Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) database will include multiple forms of biometrics—from face recognition to DNA, data from questionable sources, and highly personal data on innocent people. So why do we know so little about it?
• The Field Guide to Security Training in the Newsroom (in part, at least, a guide to digital security)
• Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook (Sarah Frier, Bloomberg, 1-8-19) Customers have been annoyed by Samsung's deal to pre-install Facebook on devices, including Galaxy phones, because the app can only be disabled, not deleted. Pre-install deals are common, but privacy concerns are rising.
• Grindr Sets Off Privacy Firestorm After Sharing Users’ H.I.V.-Status Data (Natasha Singer, NY Times, 4-3-18) An increasing number of online users in the United States, along with some members of Congress, are questioning the tech industry’s largely unfettered collection and data-mining of consumers’ personal details. The Grindr controversy also highlights the widening regulatory gap between the United States, which lacks a comprehensive federal consumer privacy law, and Europe, where privacy is viewed as a fundamental human right, with laws to back it up.
• Consent the best defense against invasion of privacy lawsuits (Pat McNees, Writers and Editors blog). The right of privacy (essentially “the right to be left alone”) is your right to control and protect the public use of your identity. There are four types of invasion of privacy: false light, intrusion, disclosure, and misappropriation (explained here). Misappropriating the right of publicity, on the other hand, is an invasion (without their consent) of a person’s right to benefit from commercial exploitation of their name or likeness.
• Online privacy for journalists by Michael Dagan (how to safeguard your communications, browsing, and data, from any unwanted "big brother" or intruder--indirectly how to protect a source. Proceeds go to Electronic Frontier Foundation)
• Reporters Recording Guide (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press). Who owns the copyright--the reporter or the interviewee? What if a third party records the interview? Read this whole entry! This site contains many helpful articles on privacy and journalism.
• Myths and fallacies of “Personally identifiable information” (Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov, Viewpoints, Communications of the ACM, June 2010). Developing effective privacy protection technologies is a critical challenge for security and privacy research as the amount and variety of data collected about individuals increase exponentially. Any information that distinguishes one person from another can be used for re-identifying data.
• Coalition Letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kelly Opposing Collection of Passwords at the Border (Center for Democracy & Technology, CDT, 3-10-17) Lara B. Sharp.
• A Tiny Scar, From Falling (Longreads, 5-21-18) Her efforts to gather information about what happened to her in foster care and as a ward of the state turn up nothing but incorrect records. "Why would anyone who was found guilty of abusing a child have the right to privacy related to the crimes? That doesn’t happen with other crimes."
• Gawker’s Demise and the Trump-Era Threat to the First Amendment (Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker, 12-19/​26-16) 'Ever since New York Times v. Sullivan, in 1964, established the rule that, in order to prevail, public figures must prove that stories about them are both false and were published with “actual malice,” libel cases have proved extremely difficult for plaintiffs to win. “We always felt that privacy was more of a fruitful ground for plaintiffs to sow, because in those cases they did not have to prove falsity or actual malice, the way they did in libel cases,” George Freeman, the executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, told me. “The whole celebrity culture just gives rise to more of these issues.” The Internet, with its absence of gatekeepers and its unlimited number of voices, has scrambled the traditional understanding of invasion-of-privacy cases. “We are in a different world now, sparked in part by the Hulk Hogan case and by a push-the-envelope media that doesn’t abide by traditional journalistic rules,” Gajda said.'
• The Man Who Made Off With John Updike’s Trash (Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic, 8-28-14) Who really owns a great writer’s legacy? The ethics of collecting celebrity trash.
• Facebook: Where Your Friends Are Your Worst Enemies (Packet Storm, 6-21-13)
• Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance by Julia Angwin
• •HIPAA, electronic health records, medical privacy laws, and patient rights
• A Writer’s Guide to Defamation and Invasion of Privacy (Amy Cook, Writer's Digest, 1-22-16) An excellent overview of what to avoid when writing a novel or memoir, with particularly good attention to invasion of privacy, about which writers may show less concern. This is a pretty long article with lots of ads interspersed, so read past the ads to make sure you're getting it all. Among the takeaways: "Don’t mention private or embarrassing facts about others unless you can honestly say they are of legitimate public concern and essential to telling your story. Ditto with bringing up a long-passed crime."
• Here's what the Feds have on you: Everything (Erik Sherman, MoneyWatch, CBS 6-7-13)
• What makes government spies scarier than corporate snooping? (Timothy Noah, NSNBC, 6-11-13)
• Herbert Mitgang's obituary (Douglas Martin, NY Times, 11-21-13) focuses on his expose of government spying. His "1988 book, Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America’s Greatest Authors, reported that the agencies were suspicious not just of radical views but also of liberal ones. Mr. Mitgang said the Nobel Prize winners Sinclair Lewis and William Faulkner were monitored in part because they favored racial equality." Ernest Hemingway's file "criticized his muscular writing style and, probably most damning, said that he had once likened the F.B.I. to the Gestapo." So much for freedom of the press.
• A.C.L.U. Files Lawsuit Seeking to Stop the Collection of Domestic Phone Logs (Charlie Savage, NY Times, 6-11-13) Congress never openly voted to authorize the collection of logs of hundreds of millions of domestic calls, but some lawmakers were secretly briefed. Some members of Congress have backed the program as a useful counterterrorism tool; others have denounced it.
• Should Google serve the state – or serve its customers? (John Naughton, The Guardian, 6-8-13) The web giant is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to privacy for users. Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, lectured about ideas at Cambridge. "The rock is that the national security state...The hard place is corporate terror that their users will become alienated by the realisation that personal communications cannot be safely entrusted to internet companies based in the US." "In the US, he argued, people worried more about the power of the state rather than that of corporations, whereas in Europe people seemed to trust the state but mistrust companies."
• A Reporter's Guide to Medical Privacy Law (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, on medical privacy vs. the public interest)
• Tape-recording laws at a glance (state by state, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)
• A Writer's Guide to Defamation and Invasion of Privacy (Amy Cook, Writer's Digest, 9-15-10)
• Electronic Frontier Foundation articles on privacy issues, including anonymity, biometrics, The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, the U.S. wiretapping law passed in 1994), cell tracking, cyber security legislation, digital books, Do Not Track, international privacy standards, locational privacy, mandatory data retention, mass surveillance technologies, national security letters, NSA spying, online behavioral tracking, PATRIOT Act, pen trap, printers, radio-frequency identification (RFID), search engines, search incident to arrest, social networks, travel screening.
• The Problem With Europe’s Strict Privacy Laws (Christopher Wolf, Slate 3-14-12). An elderly German named Heinrich Boere recently invoked an EU privacy law to file a complaint against two Dutch reporters for secretly videotaping an interview with him at his nursing home. "The criminal invasion-of-privacy case against the reporters put into sharp focus the automatic and inflexible application of privacy law in circumstances where flexibility and discretion appear to be called for." Read this important article!
• Should Personal Data Be Personal? Europe Moves to Protect Online Privacy (Somini Sengupta, NY Times Sunday Review 2-4-12)
• SPLC Legal Brief: Invasion of Privacy Law (Student Press Law Center, SPLC, a helpful outline of key issues)
• Naming Names: Identifying Minors (SPLC, aimed at student newspapers)
• Facebook Is Using You (Lori Andrews, NY Times, 2-5-12). "We need a do-not-track law, similar to the do-not-call one. Now it’s not just about whether my dinner will be interrupted by a telemarketer. It’s about whether my dreams will be dashed by the collection of bits and bytes over which I have no control and for which companies are currently unaccountable." Andrews is author of I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy
• Power And The Internet (Bruce Schneier's essay appeared as a response to Edge's annual question: "What *Should* We Be Worried About?""Debates over the future of the Internet are morally and politically complex. How do we balance personal privacy against what law enforcement needs to prevent copyright violations? Or child pornography? Is it acceptable to be judged by invisible computer algorithms when being served search results? When being served news articles? When being selected for additional scrutiny by airport security? Do we have a right to correct data about us? To delete it? Do we want computer systems that forget things after some number of years? "'

HOW TO COVER YOUR DIGITAL TRAIL AND HOW IT CAN BE USED AGAINST YOU

• Your Digital Trail, And How It Can Be Used Against You (Daniel Zwerdling, All Tech Considered, NPR, 9-30-13) NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting are documenting just how vivid the typical person's digital picture has become — and how easy it can be to access it. Co-reported by G.W. Schulz from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
• Your Digital Trail: Private Company Access (Zwerdling, NPR, 10-1-13) Data we voluntarily provide online — such as on dating websites — may not stay with that site. While not always obvious, websites commonly allow other companies to track user behavior.
• Encrypting Your Laptop Like You Mean It (Micah Lee, The Intercept, 4-27-15)
• Your Digital Trail: Does The Fourth Amendment Protect Us? (Daniel Zwerdling, All Tech Considered, NPR, 10-2-13) Could government agents really get access to all your private data in less than a minute? Experts say no but warn we are moving in that direction.
• Your Digital Trail: Data Fuels Political And Legal Agendas (Zwerdling, NPR, 10-3-13) Private attorneys are easily getting access to defendants' emails and texts. All it takes is a subpoena, which any attorney can do. Former Nixon administration attorney John Dean and a North Carolina divorce lawyer warn that if you think you have nothing to hide, think again.
• Data Marketers Know What You Bought Last Summer (Elise Hu, New York Public Radio, 9-4-13) Marketing technology company Acxiom is letting you see the data marketers have and use to advertise to you. Check out what they know about you, your household, your education or income or purchase preferences.

• Defining Academic Freedom (Cary Nelson, Inside Higher Ed, 12-21-10) Sometimes academic freedom is invoked in situations where it doesn't actually apply. But many within and without higher education are not well-versed in all the protections it does provide. This statement is designed to help clarify both what academic freedom does and doesn't do. For example, academic freedom means that both faculty members and students can engage in intellectual debate without fear of censorship or retaliation. (Excellent explanation follows.)
• Academic Freedom Primer (pdf, Ann Franke, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges)
• Academic freedom (Wikipedia's entry is a good overview, plus there are links)
• Resources on Academic Freedom (American Association of University Professors, AAUP)
• China’s bid to block my journal’s articles is a new attack on academic freedom (Tim Pringle, The Guardian, 8-21-17) Cambridge University Press was asked to suppress articles in China Quarterly. It has now resisted, but it is a worrying development
• IPA urges China to 'respect the decision' of Cambridge University Press to restore articles (Alison Flood, The Guardian, 8-22-17) The International Publishers Association has urged the Chinese government not to take punitive action against Cambridge University Press following the publisher’s decision to restore online access to hundreds of academic articles it had been asked to remove by Chinese authorities.
• BC should abide by subpoena, provide info in murder case (Editorial, Boston Globe 8-1-11). Academic community fears chilling effect of honoring subpoenas for sealed oral history transcripts. "BOSTON COLLEGE is justifiably proud of its relationship with Ireland and its role in helping to shepherd the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Those close ties are one reason the college has been waging a court battle against a US government subpoena, requested by British authorities, which seeks testimony from a sealed oral history project about the war in Northern Ireland. Boston College’s concerns are valid, but the interests of justice and diplomacy outweigh any claim for special protection. The promise that was made to participants in the oral history project - that their testimony wouldn’t be released until they died - must be rescinded in light of a murder investigation."
• College Fights Subpoena of Interviews Tied to I.R.A. (Katie Zezima, NY Times, 6-9-11). "Boston College filed a motion this week to quash a federal subpoena seeking access to confidential interviews of paramilitary fighters for the Provisional Irish Republican Army."
• US college requests quashing of oral history subpoenas (Kevin Cullen, Irish Times 6-11-11). "In A case being watched closely by academics around the world, Boston College has asked a judge to quash subpoenas demanding it turn over to British authorities records from an oral history project involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. In papers filed in court in Boston, the college said releasing audio tapes and other materials connected to the confidential interviews could jeopardise the safety of former paramilitaries who were interviewed, the two former paramilitaries who conducted the interviews, and college staff involved in an oral history known as the 'Belfast Project'.”
• The Unwritten Code of Conduct (The Research Whisperer, 12-15-15) "Each day this week, my supervisor has walked into my office and made verbal demands that I remove content from my beloved blog. Each day, the boundaries of appropriate social media usage shift a little, and my requests for some clear written guidance are rebuffed. I’m a postdoc at a research-intensive organisation....If universities are intent on monitoring, moderating and censoring the social media presence of academic staff, then it’s only fair to actually write these unwritten rules and work together towards some transparent and fair guidelines."
• Unacademic Freedom? (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, 3-1-16) Academic freedom is supposed to protect unpopular views. A case involving an Oberlin professor who claimed that ISIS is really the CIA and Mossad asks whether that freedom extends to falsehoods.
• Kitzmiller v. Dover: Intelligent Design on Trial (National Center for Science Education: Defending the teaching of evolution & climate science). As the first trial over "intelligent design," the case received national media attention and has since been the subject of several books
• More criticism of 'Academic Bill of Rights' (Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 1-9-06) "Ellen Schrecker, a professor of history at Yeshiva University, called the Academic Bill of Rights a "cleverly written document" that was designed to pressure faculty members to hire more conservatives and to avoid topics and views that offend conservatives. "We should not seek to protect students from hearing uncomfortable views," she said."
• Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) (mission: to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities, including rights to freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience)

Example:
Public Communications and the Media
May I take phone calls from media and give interviews?
Yes. There are no exceptions here. However, you are not required to give media interviews. You can always refer media to your public affairs officer. Similarly, you should always feel free to consult with your public affairs officer prior to an interview and/​or include them in the interview.

What should I do if I am asked to give an interview?
You are not required to do anything. However, good practice suggests you should notify your public affairs officer and/​or the head of your operating unit prior to or just after you give an interview. Why? Common courtesy. You wouldn't want somebody surprising you with detailed questions about your work, and your managers are no different. Nobody enjoys being made to look foolish or uninformed in public. If you don't tell your managers you said something, it is possible they could be called out and made to look bad. Situational awareness is not a requirement, but it can be a good thing. Use your best judgment.
[Thanks to Andrew Holtz for drawing journalists' attention to this. HHS should be following a similar policy.]
See PROBLEMS FOR JOURNALISTS COVERING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND ITS AGENCIES

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."--First Amendment, one of ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution that constitute the Bill of Rights

‘A time comes when silence is betrayal.’ ~Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

• What some reporters get wrong about the First Amendment (Jonathan Peters, Columbia Journalism Review, 2-5-18) One of them: "There are very few constitutional protections for newsgathering, and virtually none that apply just to journalists."
• A Supreme Court case has Internet companies running scared (Alison Frankel, Internet of Things, Reuter,12-13-18) In the case Manhattan Community Access Corporation v. Halleck, a NY public access cable television station, operated by the nonprofit Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) via a long-running agreement with New York City, took disciplinary action against two contributors for allegedly inciting violence against station employees. The contributors sued, claiming MNN was violating their First Amendment free speech rights. The Internet Association fears that the owner of a private platform can be converted into a state actor just because it operates a site encouraging free speech. See EFF To U.S. Supreme Court: Rule Carefully In Free Speech Case About Private Operators, State Actors, and the First Amendment ( Karen Gullo and David Greene, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 12-12-18) "Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter provide an opportunity for everyone to have a voice on the Internet, to communicate with friends, post their views, and comment on movies or the president. However, the fact that they provide a broad, open platform for speech doesn’t automatically mean they are “public forums” in the sense your town’s official Facebook page or @​realDonaldTrump are. Those are run by the government or its officials, who, when it comes to the First Amendment, are “state actors” and can’t block people from the forum without complying with First Amendment standards. Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, are platforms created and run by corporations, which are private entities that can curate and edit content. The distinction between private entities and state actors providing forums for communication is crucial for the free speech rights of Internet users and the platforms they use."
• The Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation (PDF) David Greene:
"These principles advance three key goals: numbers (companies should publish the number of posts removed and accounts suspended); notice (companies should provide notice and an explanation to each user whose content is removed); and appeal (companies should provide a meaningful opportunity for timely appeal of any content removal or account suspension)." As stated in an excellent piece: Alex Jones is far from the only person tech companies are silencing (David Greene, WashPost, 8-12-18) Content moderation systems do but should not operate in secret with no public accountability.
• A Shameful Season for American Journalists (Chriustopher M. Finan, Opinion, Wall Street Journal, 9-24-18--behind a paywall). The Nation, the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books all run scared from criticism. "Ian Buruma was forced out last week as editor of the New York Review of Books after publishing an essay by a man who admitted that he has abused women. Mr. Buruma’s sudden departure caps a shameful season of American journalism. In July, the Nation apologized for a poem for the first time in its 153-year history. In August, the New Yorker canceled a conversation at its annual festival between editor David Remnick and
former White House aide Steve Bannon....The journalist’s job is to ask difficult questions, prompting what can be uncomfortable conversations. This can be complicated. Presenting objectionable views could suggest one is condoning them. Yet learning something about the experience and views of those we dislike or with whom we disagree is crucial to understanding the deepening—and dangerous—divisions
in our society." As some observers put it, When does poor editorial or educational judgment cross over into censorship? And: "Engagement is not endorsement."
• "NFL owners have employed players who killed other men, beat wives & girl friends, took part in a dog-fighting ring, and more. Yet they've effectively banned Colin Kaepernick for speaking his mind. Agree with his views or not, free speech is at stake." @​ClydeHaberman
• Gatekeepers or Censors? How Tech Manages Online Speech (NY Times, 8-7-18) Apple, Google and Facebook this week erased from their services many — but not all — videos, podcasts and posts from the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars site. And Twitter left Mr. Jones’s posts untouched....The tech companies’ approach to Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist, exposed how unevenly tech companies enforce their rules....Of all the tech companies, Facebook has faced the biggest public outcry over what it allows on its platform."
• How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment (Adam Liptak, NY Times, 6-30-18) 'The court’s five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority had used the First Amendment to reject a California law requiring religiously oriented “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide women with information about abortion. Conservatives, said Justice Kagan, who is part of the court’s four-member liberal wing, were “weaponizing the First Amendment.” The two decisions were the latest in a stunning run of victories for a conservative agenda that has increasingly been built on the foundation of free speech. Conservative groups, borrowing and building on arguments developed by liberals, have used the First Amendment to justify unlimited campaign spending, discrimination against gay couples and attacks on the regulation of tobacco, pharmaceuticals and guns.'
• Facebook and Apple just made Alex Jones a martyr: It's better to counter bad speech with good speech (Nadine Strossen, NY Daily News, 8-8-18) "A 2016 report about counterspeech on Twitter concluded that hateful and other “extremist” speech was most effectively undermined by counterspeech rather than by censoring, in part because of the futility of trying to remove anything once it’s been posted."
• Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children (Julia Angwin and Hannes Grassegger, ProPublica, 6-28-17) A trove of internal documents sheds light on the algorithms that Facebook’s censors use to differentiate between hate speech and legitimate political expression.
• Alex Jones and Online Content Regulation (National Coalition Against Censorship, 8-9-18) It's not about Alex Jones...The removals shine a harsh light on the challenges tech companies face in applying their own content regulations.
• Why kicking Alex Jones off social media is not legally censorship (PBS, 8-8-18) Listen or read transcript.
• Liberals, Don’t Lose Faith in the First Amendment (David Cole, NY Times, 8-1-18) "In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Roberts court deployed the First Amendment to guarantee that corporations can engage in unlimited campaign spending....[But] the amendment’s core requirement is that the government must remain neutral regarding the content and viewpoint of speech. As a result, a decision protecting conservative speech will equally support liberal speech....government officials continue to be tempted to silence people for their views....In a democracy, the rich and those in the majority don’t need constitutional protections; they can generally enact their desires through ordinary political processes. The targets of censorship are typically dissidents, outsiders, the marginalized." This opinion piece is once-over-lightly on cases.
• Everything we think about the political correctness debate is wrong (Matthew Yglesias, Vox, 3-12-18) Support for free speech is rising, and is higher among liberals and college graduates. Among the public at large, meanwhile, the group whose speech the public is most likely to favor stifling is Muslims.
• The State of the First Amendment: 2017’s Top Free Speech Offenders and Defenders (National Coalition Against Censorship, 12-20-17)
• DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression, an excellent daily-curated roundup of the most pressing threats and notable goings-on in free expression today, from the U.S. and abroad--a project of PEN America's #LouderTogether campaign. See also the PEN America Digital Archive , an archive of resources for and about literature and advocacy for free expression.
• Freedom of Expression Watchlist (Authors Guild)
• So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast (FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education).
• Freedom of Information Resources for Journalists (Newslab)
• 'The Talk': How to 'do' free speech (video, Aaron Reese and Chris Maltby, FIRE, free speech explained for young people)
• Books for Understanding: Freedom of Expression and the First Amendment Book lists on The idea of free expression in history and philosophy; A free press; Religious freedom (General; and Separation of church and state); The First Amendment and free speech in America; Limits on free speech (hate speech and obscenity; commercial and electoral speech); free expression in education (in the classroom; academic freedom); Freedom of association, assembly and petition.
• The Delete Squad (Jeffrey Rosen, The New Republic, 4-29-13) Google, Twitter, Facebook and the new global battle over the future of free speech.
• Older people and Republicans, threatening free speech (Catherine Rampell, WaPo, 11-2-17) Various free speech surveys reveal that "lefty undergrads hold no monopoly on illiberalism." Depending on the survey source and the question, any group can appear to be illiberal. "For example, a [Cato Institute survey's] series of questions asked about whether executives and employees should be fired for holding various beliefs or participating in various kinds of political dissent. Liberals were more likely to support firing for racist beliefs and so on; but conservatives were more likely to support firing for political dissent such as flag-burning...a majority of Republicans says that Americans who burn the American flag — a constitutionally protected act — should have their citizenship revoked....Speaking of flagrant violations of the First Amendment, nearly half of Republicans would favor a law banning the building of mosques in their community...All of which is to reiterate that democratic values are under threat from many more sources than just socialist 19-year-olds."
• One Year In: Trump and Trauma, Threats and Tribalism: Art Censorship and a Divisive Presidency (Svetlana Mintcheva, National Coalition Against Censorship, 1-17-18) Protests opposing alt-right and other controversial speakers have turned violent on college campuses, museums face threats of violence, artists call for the destruction of work by other artists and outrage is replacing reasoned debate (that apparently outdated darling of liberals). A new culture war? "From the demise of net neutrality to extreme media consolidation, both accomplished by a Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission, and including a range of legislative changes in-between, structural changes in the United States promise long-term shifts in who is able to be heard and who shapes public opinion."
• First Amendment Watch New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute launched this online resource that "goes beyond the headlines to provide much-needed coverage and context to the debate over freedom of expression."
---Under News Gathering: Access, Secrecy, Leaks, Subpoenas, FOIA, Fake News.
---Under Speech: Offensive Speech, Campus Speech, Symbolic Speech, Artistic Speech.
---Other Sections (no subcategories yet): Libel, Threats, Censorship, Assembly, Privacy, Emotional Distress, Hate Speech, Prior Restraint, Reporter's Privilege, Public Forums, Privacy Versus Free Speech.
• Spam Filters Threaten Free Speech on the Internet (James McGrath Morris, WaPo, 11-29-08) "The inclusion of "young adult," "getting nasty" and "hot" among the thousands of words in my publication [a newsletter, Biographer's Craft] was like poison. Indiscriminate spam-blocking software would spot those words, ignore the context and group my newsletter with unsolicited e-mails from purveyors of smut. "
• Lawmakers in Ten States Have Proposed Legislation Criminalizing Peaceful Protest (Spencer Moodman, The Intercept, 1-23-17)
• The Worst Time for the Left to Give Up on Free Speech (Michelle Goldberg, Op-Ed, NY Times, 10-6-17) "It’s certainly true that it’s easier to enjoy free speech when you’re privileged. It doesn’t follow from that, however, that eroding free speech protections helps the vulnerable. When disputes about free speech are adjudicated not according to broad principles but according to who has power, the left will mostly lose.... Luckily, if they ever do come face to face with forces determined to shut them up, the A.C.L.U. will be there."
• Junk science': experts cast doubt on widely cited college free speech survey (Lois Beckett, The Guardian, 9-22-17) Survey saying 20% of US college students believe it’s appropriate to use violence against offensive speech was was not administered to a randomly selected group of college students nationwide, what statisticians call a “probability sample.” Instead, it was given to an opt-in online panel of people who identified as current college students.
• Cake Is His ‘Art.’ So Can He Deny One to a Gay Couple? (Adam Liptak, NY Times, 9-16-17) "Jack Phillips bakes beautiful cakes, and it is not a stretch to call him an artist. Five years ago, in a decision that has led to a Supreme Court showdown, he refused to use his skills to make a wedding cake to celebrate a same-sex marriage, saying it would violate his Christian faith and hijack his right to express himself....At first blush, the case looked like a conflict between a state law banning discrimination and the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom. But when the Supreme Court hears the case this fall, the arguments will mostly center on a different part of the First Amendment: its protection of free speech."
• When free speech devolves into violence (Roy S. Gutterman, editorial, Syracuse.com, 8-17-17) "Where do you draw the line between free speech and censorship, suppression or punishment? In Charlottesville, Virginia, that line was smashed. What started as a seemingly lawful, yet emotional and heated, protest exploded into a full-blown riot with chaos, three deaths and neo-Nazis, KKK and other white supremacists clad in helmets, brandishing shields and weapons. First Amendment rights to speak, assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances are fundamental, but not absolute. Showing up to a protest with armor and weapons crosses the line and the rioting loses its constitutional protection."
• The Ugly Business of Defending Free Speech in 2017 (Priscilla Frank, HuffPost, 11-21-17) Clay Hansen, of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression (TJC) is proud to defend pro athletes around the country exercising their First Amendment rights by kneeling during the national anthem to support "49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016 began protesting racial injustice in America by taking a knee during the national anthem." It's tougher defending Nazis and funeral protesters, but he has to, because, in his mind, “If we don’t defend these people now, it could be you next.” “The First Amendment applies to everyone,” Hansen said. “It applies to the ignorant and the hateful and everybody else, regardless of how much you disagree with them personally.”
• How to Make Fun of Nazis (Moises Velasquez-Manoff, NY Times, 8-17-17) "For decades, Wunsiedel, a German town near the Czech border, has struggled with a parade of unwanted visitors. It was the original burial place of one of Adolf Hitler’s deputies, a man named Rudolf Hess. And every year, to residents’ chagrin, neo-Nazis marched to his grave site. The town had staged counterdemonstrations to dissuade these pilgrims....in 2014, the town tried a different tactic: humorous subversion....nonviolent struggles were resolved much sooner than violent ones....nonviolent struggles attracted more allies more quickly. Violent struggles, on the other hand, often repelled people and dragged on for years."
• John Lewis: NFL players kneeling 'are following a long tradition' (Brandon Carter, The Hill, 9-25-17) Players across the NFL knelt and locked arms during the playing of the national anthem this weekend in response to President Trump’s criticism of athletes who don’t stand for the anthem. The NFL hoped Colin Kaepernick would go away, but they couldn't keep him off the field (Adam Kilgore, National Post, 9-26-17) Donald Trump's caustic remarks and tweets left players with little choice but to respond. Many took their cues from Kaepernick. The Martyring of Colin Kaepernick (Ben Strauss, Politico, 9-3-17) How the NFL botched the quarterback’s protest and guaranteed the controversy will live on, whether he plays or not. Reporters had begun to openly suggest Kaepernick, good enough to sign a $127 million contract in 2014, was being blackballed—retaliation by a famously autocratic organization against a player who had dared to embarrass it. The point: Dear Conservatives: Do You Really Believe in Free Speech? (Benjamin L. Corey, Patheos, 9-25-17) "...in situations like this you prove you don’t really believe in free speech at all– because you can’t say you believe in free speech, but also believe in compelled speech." An important summary: This video is the best 5 minutes you will see on the NFL protests. (German Lopez, Vox, 9-28-17) Nick Wright: “When people march, they are not protesting traffic.” What are you actually mad at? Are you angry about the form of protest? Or what is being protested? Kneeling IS a form of peaceful protest. The players have been uniform that they have been using the anthem to protest inequality, police brutality, and racial injustice. Trump and others have hijacked the protest and made it about the anthem.

• Transcript: Colin Kaepernick addresses sitting during national anthem (Chris Biderman, Ninerswire, 8-28-16) A transcript from 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s media session Sunday Aug. 28, 2016 – his first public appearance after telling NFL Media why he decided to sit during the national anthem during the first three preseason games.
• Defining Hate Speech (Andrew Sellars, Boston University School of Law, on Social Science Research Network, SSRN, a website devoted to the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences and humanities) Downloadable. Common traits of hate speech: 1) Targeting a group, or individual as member of a group; 2) Content in the message that conveys hate; 3) The speech causes a harm; 4) The speaker intends harm or bad activity; 5) The speech incites bad actions beyond the speech itself; 6) The speech is either public or directed at a member of a group; 7) The context makes violence response possible; 8) The speech has no redeeming purpose.
• What Does Facebook Consider Hate Speech? Take Our Quiz (Audrey Carlsen and Fahima Haque, NY Times, 10-13-17) The answers to the quiz are interesting, especially if you get one wrong.

• Hate Speech court cases (6 cases, The First Amendment Encyclopedia)
• Gag Orders and Free Speech cases (4 cases, The First Amendment Encyclopedia) Look at Case Categories for links to case summaries on other, related subjects in the First Amendment Encyclopedia, a very handy addition to our online reference library.
• Why We Must Still Defend Free Speech (David Cole, NY Review of Books, 9-28-17) "Free speech, in short, is exposing white supremacists’ ideas to the condemnation they deserve. Moral condemnation, not legal suppression, is the appropriate response to these despicable ideas."
• DOCS V. GLOCKS. Florida Doctors May Discuss Guns With Patients, Court Rules (Lizette Alvarez, NY Times, 2-16-17) A number of doctors and medical organizations sued Florida in a case that came to be known as Docs v. Glocks, after the popular handgun. The Florida law was the first in the country to try to restrict the First Amendment rights of medical providers to discuss the safe storage of guns with patients, and the court ruling will probably make it more difficult for other states to pass a similar measure. The Republican-controlled Florida legislature, with the support of the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, passed the restrictions in 2011, aimed primarily at pediatricians. Under the law, doctors could lose their licenses or risk large fines for asking patients or their families about gun ownership and gun habits. The National Rifle Association viewed the medical community’s gun-related questions as discriminatory and a form of harassment, a position that the state took in court when it argued the queries violated the right to bear arms. Florida to Pay Legal Fees in Case That Kept Doctors From Discussing Guns (Matthew Haag, NY Times, 7-24-17)

• How To Leak To ProPublica (ProPublica) "We’re investigative journalists devoted to exposing abuse of power. If you’ve got evidence showing powerful people doing the wrong thing, here’s how to let us know while protecting your identity."

• Forget About It? Harmonizing European and American Protections for Privacy, Free Speech, and Due Process (Dawn Carla Nunziato, SSRN, 6-22-17) When the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its "right to be forgotten" decision in May 2014, Google complied by "removing links only within its European domains (such as Google.es or Google.de)."
"The privacy protections recognized in the Google Spain decision are not necessarily incompatible with the substantive protections provided by U.S. free speech law and the balance U.S. courts have struck over time between privacy and free speech. Yet, as implemented, these privacy protections fail to comport with the procedural protections required under the U.S. Constitution."
• Leaked policies guiding moderators on what content to allow are likely to fuel debate about social media giant’s ethics (Nick Hopkins, The Guardian, 5-21-17) Leaked policies guiding moderators on what content to allow are likely to fuel debate about social media giant’s ethics
• Making Google the Censor (Daphne Keller, NY Times, 6-12-17) Can sites like Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia be asked to build tools to identify and remove extremist content? and so on.
• Free Speech Rights of Public Employees (Exploring Constitutional Conflicts, The issue: May the government use the speech of a public employee as the basis for discharge or denying promotion? A few interesting cases. Here's one, from Oyez: Garcetti v. Ceballos.
• Human Rights and Encription (PDF of report, UNESCO 2016) "UNESCO “recognizes the role that anonymity and encryption can play as enablers of privacy protection and freedom of expression, and facilitates dialogue on these issues.” The principles of Internet Universality (R.O.A.M.) "advocate for a human-Rights-based, Open and Accessible Internet, governed by Multi-stakeholder participation." Advocates for "encryption literacy."
• Oyez Database on major constitutional cases heard by the United States Supreme Court, with multimedia resources including digital audio of oral arguments.
• Talent Wants to Be Free: Why We Should Learn to Love Leaks, Raids, and Free Riding by Orly Lobel, who challenges conventional business wisdom about competition, secrecy, motivation, and creativity. Combining original behavioral experiments with sharp observations of contemporary battles over ideas, secrets, and skill, Lobel identifies motivation, relationships, and mobility as the most important ingredients for successful innovation.
• Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control (Freedom of Expression Project). Download free PDF. Practices that threaten free expression and fair use: cease and desist letters, DMCA take-down notices, the "clearance culture," negotiated guidelines.
• Online Censorship: A Global Map & Ranking of Every Country’s Internet Restrictions (Infographic, VPN Mentor)
• Seattle Muralist Crystal Barbre Alters Her Work to Skirt Obscenity Laws (Sarra Scherb, Vanguard Seattle, 9-27-16). Who’s Afraid of the Female Nipple? The State of Washington.
• Timeline: a history of free speech (David Smith and Luc Torres, Media, The Guardian, 2-5-06
• Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech (Nicholas Kristof, OpEd, NY Times, 11-11-15) "On university campuses across the country, from Mizzou to Yale, we have two noble forces colliding with explosive force. One is a concern for minority or marginalized students and faculty members, who are often left feeling as outsiders in ways that damage everyone’s education." Student photographer Tim Tai, who was trying to document the protests unfolding in a public space, "represented the other noble force in these upheavals — free expression. He tried to make the point, telling the crowd: 'The First Amendment protects your right to be here — and mine.'”

• 'Times' Journalists Puncture Myth Of Trump As Self-Made Billionaire (Terry Gross interviews investigative reporters Susanne Craig and David Barstow, who say the president received today's equivalent of $413 million from his father's real estate empire, through what appears to be tax fraud. See also Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father (Susanne Craig and David Barstowand Russ Buettner, NY Times, 10-2-18) The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through schemes to avoid paying taxes on multimillion dollar gifts in the family.
• Donald Trump Fact Check (Toronto Star)
• Why PEN America Is Suing Donald Trump (Jennifer Egan, LitHub, 10-18-18) "Trump's vitriol against reporters has made political journalism a more dangerous practice....President Trump’s frank admiration for authoritarian rulers makes his efforts to hobble a free press here in America all the more alarming. His actions conform to what some call an 'authoritarian playbook' for modern tyrants, in which the curtailing of free speech occurs subtly and gradually through a system of governmental rewards and punishments that encourage cooperation and gradually chill opposing voices."
• Hundreds of Newspapers Denounce Trump's Attacks on Media in Coordinated Editorials (James Doubek, NPR, 8-16-18) NPR does not have an editorial board, and did not take part in Thursday's coordinated effort. The project was spearheaded by staff members of the editorial page at the Globe. See
---A Free Press Needs You (Editorial, NY Times, 8-15-18)
--- "Americans may not like the news they see or hear but they should not hold that against those who report it. In short, don’t shoot the messenger." --TriCorner News, LakeVille Journal, 8-15-18)
---Journalists are not the enemy (Boston Globe editorial board, 8-15-18)
---"Self-governance demands that our citizens need to be well-informed and that's what we're here to do. ... Some think we're rude to question and challenge. We know it's our obligation."--The Times of North Little Rock
---"Journalists are used to being insulted. It comes with the job ... But being called an enemy — and not of a politician or cause, but of the whole people of a nation — that's something else entirely."-- Topeka Capital-Journal
• EPA Lets AP Reporter Back Into Summit After She Was Shoved Out Of Building (DAvid Bauder, Talking Points Memo, 5-22-18) AP journalist Ellen Knickmeyer and reporters from CNN and E&E News were told they could not attend an invitation-only event, a summit on a class of chemicals present in dangerous amounts in many water systems around the country. Knickmeyer "was earlier barred and shoved out of the building by a security guard." “We understand the importance of an open and free press and we hope the EPA does, too,” CNN said. Scott Pruitt apparently does not.
• Trump admin tightens media access for federal scientists: report (Ali Breland, The Hill, 6-21-18) The Trump administration is directing federal scientists in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to get approval from the Department of the Interior, its parent agency, before speaking to reporters, according to the Los Angeles Times. "The employees said that they believe the new policies were established to control the voices of Interior employees. They believe the move is a part of larger efforts to quell discourse about climate change, which the agency has produced research on."
• "It's the law, stupid," and seven other lessons from the EPA's botched media blackout. (Indira Lakshmanan, Poynter, 5-24-18) The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that any advisory group making recommendations to the federal government “shall be open to the public.” Journalists protect their interests if they’re versed in open records and open meetings laws.
• Board objects to EPA press office action (National Association of Science Writers, 3-26-18) Inpart: "With the March 20 “press release,” EPA effectively limited its discussion of a major science policy story to a handpicked, partisan outlet. It also encouraged journalists to learn details about this story from a published article, which can never be a basis of responsible news reporting.
"When reporters contact the EPA Press Office asking for information regarding the activities of a taxpayer-funded organization, those queries should be answered swiftly by knowledgeable staff. The same holds when journalists request public documents from an agency."
• Judge: Trump Can’t Block Twitter Users(Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, 5-13-18).S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that President Donald Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking Twitter users who criticized him and his policies. Her ruling is an extraordinary victory for free speech on the internet and a harsh rebuke to Trump’s effort to prevent his critics from engaging with him online.
• The White House's attack on scientists could manipulate public opinion (Lauren Kurtz and Romany Webb, Opinion, The Hill, 2-28-18) "The Trump administration’s FY2019 budget, unveiled last Monday, proposes cuts in essential funding for scientific research and education. Unfortunately, this attack on science is not an isolated incident. Barely a year into President Trump’s term, there have already been 111 attempts by the federal government to censor, misrepresent, or stifle science. Many appear intended to gain support for the administration’s efforts to prop up the fossil fuel industry... At the Department of the Interior (DOI), a website discussing the environmental and other risks of fossil fuel development was changed to emphasize economic benefits [and to argue against human causes of climate change]. A few months later, large swaths of land previously protected from coal mining and oil and gas drilling were opened to development. Shortly after this, DOI’s Bureau of Land Management changed the image on its homepage from a scenic park vista to a pile of coal, presumably to reinforce the message that public lands are for mining."
• Words banned at multiple HHS agencies include ‘diversity’ and ‘vulnerable’ (Lena H. Sun and Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, 12-10-17) "The Trump administration has informed multiple divisions within the Department of Health and Human Services that they should avoid using certain words or phrases in official documents being drafted for next year’s budget. The words to avoid: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” Participants at HHS were also told to use “Obamacare” instead of ACA, or the Affordable Care Act, and to use “exchanges” instead of “marketplaces” to describe the venues where people can purchase health insurance. At the CDC, budget analysts were told they could use an alternative phrase instead of “evidence-based” or “science-based” in budget documents. That phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes.”
The CDC analyst said it was clear to participants that they were to avoid those seven words but only in drafting budget documents.
• The police threw the book at Trump Protesters in DC but sat and watched White Supremacists terrorize Charlottesville (Sandra Fulton, HuffPost, 8-29-17) "Last week, the Department of Justice altered a sweeping warrant, which sought to collect personal information on every visitor to an anti-Trump website that organized protests on Inauguration Day....The demand seems to be in line with a broader trend within the Trump Administration—a harsh crackdown against any group that disagrees with President Trump. For his part, Trump has categorized these protesters as the “Alt-Left,” a term that doesn’t seem to apply to any easily-defined entity beyond the paranoid imaginings of Trump and his allies." "The administration and law enforcement are using a range of tactics — from electronic surveillance to a growing number of anti-protest laws — to criminalize anyone that organizes in the streets to protest the president and his policies. But how are law enforcement and the administration responding to the very real threats coming from white supremacists like those who marched earlier this month on Charlottesville?'
• Justice demands 1.3M IP addresses related to Trump resistance site (Morgan Chalfant, The Hill, 8-14-17) "DreamHost claimed that the complying with the request from the Justice Department would amount to handing over roughly 1.3 million visitor IP addresses to the government, in addition to contact information, email content and photos of thousands of visitors to the website, which was involved in organizing protests against Trump on Inauguration Day. “That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment,” DreamHost wrote in the blog post on Monday. “That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind.”
• Trump Administration Starts Returning Copies of C.I.A. Torture Report to Congress (Mark Mazzetti and Mathew Rosenberg, NY Times, 6-2-17) "The Trump administration has begun returning copies of a voluminous 2014 Senate report about the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program to Congress, complying with the demand of a top Republican senator who has criticized the report for being shoddy and excessively critical of the C.I.A....The committee, which was then run by Democrats, also sent copies of the entire classified report to at least eight federal agencies, asking that they incorporate the report into their records — a move that would have made it subject to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. That law, which allows citizens, the media and other groups to request access to information held by the federal government, does not apply to congressional records...The full report is not expected to offer evidence of previously undisclosed interrogation techniques, but the interrogation sessions are said to be described in great detail. The report explains the origins of the program and identifies the officials involved, and also offers details on the role of each agency in the secret prison program."
• How Can Journalists Protect Themselves During a Trump Administration? (Kaveh Waddell, The Atlantic, 11-10-16) The president-elect’s attacks on the press hint at an unfriendly atmosphere for reporters.
• Trump Hates the Press? Take a Number. (Jack Shafer, Politico, 2-17-17) "No matter how grievous the sins of the press may be—and as a press critic, let me tell you, they are grievous—a president can’t forever blame everything on “dishonest reporters,” the “mess” the previous president left behind or the dug-in elites. Reckonings tend to take a while to form, as Nixon and Agnew learned. Trump’s will come."

• Robert Post’s Arguments Draw Replies from Erwin Chemerinsky & Will Creeley on Campus Speech Issue (Ronald K.L. Collins, Concurring Opinions, 10-25-17) Post is devoted to recent developments concerning free speech on college campuses. This sampling reveals just how controversial and widespread this debate has become.
• Free Speech on Campus by Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman
• A brief history of free speech at Yale (Allison Pohle, Boston.com, 12-6-15) Freedom of speech didn’t become officially protected at the Ivy League school until 1974. 'A debate over free speech has been raging at Yale ever since a professor sent an email defending students’ rights to wear potentially offensive Halloween costumes as an expression of free speech. After backlash from students, she recently announced that she will no longer teach at the college. But, before that announcement, more than 60 faculty members signed an open letter in her defense, emphasizing that of all the university’s values, “none is more central than the value of free expression of ideas.’’ It hasn’t always been that way. Freedom of speech wasn’t protected at Yale until 1974, when the university created a document called the Woodward Report. The report’s central premise is that intellectual growth and discovery “clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.’’ That idea was a long time coming.' Read the story behind the creation of an official policy on freedom of speech on campus.
• Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression at Yale (The Woodward Report, 12-23-74)
• Free Inquiry on Campus: A Statement of Principles by Over One Hundred Middlebury College Professors (3-6-17)
• "Campus free expression" bills may benefit protestors, but offer little new hope for college journalists ( Lindsie Trego, SPLC, 6-30-17) "The usefulness of Campus Free Speech legislation is severely limited by language that limits application only to that speech already protected by the First Amendment, found in three bills and three enacted statutes....while these statutes do a good job of setting aside outdoor areas as forums subject only to content-neutral restrictions, the longstanding issues with seeking First Amendment sanctuary for censored student journalists still may persist under these statutes.
• Even among experts, consensus on campus free speech remains elusive (UCLA Newsroom, 10-19-17) "When it comes to free speech on college campuses, a panel of constitutional law experts, social scientists and a former longtime elected official had a difficult time even agreeing on the point of the argument, let alone agreeing on a solution that would satisfy the First Amendment’s strongest legal defenders and people who have been historically oppressed by the exercise of speech. But that failure to reach consensus was kind of the point. “I’m not going to promise you that you’ll agree with anything they say,” Carbado said. “What I will promise you is … we’re not going to run away from the hard issues. We’re going to put them on the table and we’re going to debate them, and that should be what a university does.”

• University of Wisconsin approves free speech policy that punishes student protesters [who use violence] (Todd Richmond, AP, Chicago Tribune, 10-5-17) University of Wisconsin System leaders approved a policy Friday that calls for suspending and expelling students who disrupt campus speeches and presentations, saying students need to listen to all sides of issues and arguments. The Board of Regents adopted the language on a voice vote during a meeting at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie. The policy states that students found to have twice engaged in violence or other disorderly conduct that disrupts others' free speech would be suspended. Students found to have disrupted others' free expression three times would be expelled. [Emphasis added.]
• Why It's a Bad Idea to Tell Students Words Are Violence (Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Atlantic, 7-17) "Making the offline world “safer” by banning the occasional stress-inducing speaker will not help." "In sum, it was a radical enlightenment idea to tolerate the existence of dissenters, and an even more radical idea to actually engage with them. Universities are—or should be—the preeminent centers of Liberal Science. They have a duty to foster an intellectual climate that separates true ideas from popular but fallacious ones. The conflation of words with violence is not a new or progressive idea invented on college campuses in the last two years. It is an ancient and regressive idea. Americans should all be troubled that it is becoming popular again—especially on college campuses, where it least belongs." An excellent response to When Is Speech Violence? (Lisa Feldman, NY Times, 7-14-17)
• Sessions says U.S. will intervene in campus free speech cases (Sadie Gurman, Chicago Tribune, 9-26-17) "Decrying what he sees as political correctness run amok, [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions said Tuesday the Justice Department will support students who sue universities claiming their free speech rights were violated. But during the same speech at Georgetown University's law school, Sessions condemned the NFL players who have been exercising their freedom of expression by kneeling silently during the national anthem before games....In declaring free speech 'under attack' on college campuses, [Sessions] dove into an issue that has become a cause celebre for conservatives who argue their voices are being drowned out on college campuses as speeches by right-wing figures have been derailed by protests and threats of violence.'..."The American university was once the center of academic freedom, a place of robust debate, a forum for the competition of ideas," Sessions told an invitation-only audience, as nearly 200 students gathered in protest outside. A few others sat in the auditorium with duct tape over their mouths. "But it is transforming into an echo chamber of political correctness and homogenous thought, a shelter for fragile egos."'

• A chilling study shows how hostile college students are toward free speech (Catherine Rampell, WaPo, 9-18-17) "Here’s the problem with suggesting that upsetting speech warrants 'safe spaces,' or otherwise conflating mere words with physical assault: If speech is violence, then violence becomes a justifiable response to speech." John Villasenor, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and University of California at Los Angeles professor, conducted a survey of students. "Many of his questions were designed to gauge students’ understanding of the First Amendment. Colleges, after all, pay a lot of lip service to 'freedom of speech,' despite high-profile examples of civil-liberty-squelching on campus. The survey suggests that this might not be due to hypocrisy so much as a misunderstanding of what the First Amendment actually entails....Speech promoting hatred — or at least, speech perceived as promoting hatred — may be abhorrent, but it is nonetheless constitutionally protected....Women are more likely than men to believe hate speech is not constitutionally protected (49 percent vs. 38 percent, respectively)." "In truth, lefties can do more to call out threats to civil liberties perpetrated by their ideological allies. And colleges can do more to promote freer debate. But many of Villasenor’s results — like those from other data sources — show that the right is also astonishingly open to shutting down speech."
• How Trump Has Stoked the Campus Debate on Speech and Violence (Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 6-4-17) From the protests of the Free Speech Movement in the sixties, "in which students fought restrictions on dissenting political speech, to the protests of today, in which students try to shut down political speech they despise, sometimes even by violent means. The easy criticism, both from the right and from liberal academia, has been to mock college students as sensitive 'snowflakes' refusing to hear—let alone engage with—differing viewpoints. But such criticism misses a change, one that has added a combustible element to the long-standing debates over speech on campus: the start of a Presidency that, for many people, stands for bigotry and hate expressed in casual violence. During his Presidential campaign, Donald Trump helped to normalize hateful speech by fellow-citizens. In the first months of his Presidency, there has been a rise in hate crimes, numerous threats of violence against synagogues and mosques, and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries." (On the other hand, see also Teacher Suspended After Trump References Were Removed From a Yearbook (Liam Stack, NY Times, 6-12-17)

• The New Censorship on Campus (Jeffrey Herbst and Geoffrey R. Stone, Chronicle of Higher Education, 6-5-17) "Wanting to censor those whose views one finds odious and offensive is understandable. Actually silencing them is dangerous, though, because censorship is a two-way street. It is an illusion for minority groups to believe that they can censor the speech of others today without having their own expression muzzled tomorrow....Even from a short-term perspective, efforts by minority groups to censor the expression of offensive and odious speech often backfires, because it makes those they oppose into ever-more famous martyrs, giving them larger audiences and growing book sales. Little has helped the brand of the likes of Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos more than their exclusion from speaking on college campuses."
• ‘So to Speak’ Podcast: David Baugh on ‘Defending My Enemy’ (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, FIRE, 6-2-16) Why would a black criminal defense attorney—who fought against segregation in high school and battled racism in the courtroom—volunteer to defend the First Amendment rights of an Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan?

• A Guide to Disinvitation: My Conversation with Williams College President Adam Falk (Peter Wood, National Association of Scholars, March 2016) A thoughtful essay on "disinvitations on college campuses, as well as other snubs, actions prompting invited speakers to cancel their own appearances, and speakers showing up only to be drowned out by protester." This is a 'long and careful laying out of distinctions between academic, intellectual, and First Amendment freedoms, and how all three relate to the broader purposes of higher education. It was NAS’s attempt to stand back from the current melee over Black Lives Matter, microaggressions, safe spaces, and the like, to see if we could find some answers to today’s discontents. President Falk’s email seemed to provide an opening. He discerned “a line” that had been crossed. The first step would be to see if he would say what that line is.'
• Download free Peter Wood's The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom (National Association of Scholars, 1-26-16) An interesting piece. From the conclusion: "[w]e are concerned over the recent emergence of versions of academic freedom that conflate it with intellectual freedom—and sometimes conflate both academic and intellectual freedom with First Amendment freedoms. This blurring of key distinctions puts all three at risk. Universities are not places where anything can be said anywhere and at any time. They are places where the truth is pursued by disciplined means; where a hierarchy of knowledge prevails; and where intellectual authority is maintained. These matters are sometimes rhetorically downplayed but in practice they are rigorously upheld."
• Settlement Reached in Case of Professor Fired for “Uncivil” Tweets (Center for Constitutional Rights, 11-12-15) “Professor Salaita’s case galvanized champions of academic freedom and Palestinian rights activists alike, making clear that punishing speech―even speech that dares to criticize Israeli government atrocities―will not be tolerated." See also a href="http://www.fepproject.org/news/SalaitaSettlement.html"target="_blank">The Settlement in Steven Salaita's Lawsuit - Victory or Defeat for Free Speech? The Free Expression Policy Project, 11-13-15).

'I disapprove of what you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'~Voltaire[Back to Top]

• Book Censorship Toolkit (National Coalition Against Censorship)
• Responding to Censorship (Student Press Law Center) SPLC also has excellent Quizzes (about the First Amendment, student press law, access law, copyright, cyberlaw, invasion of privacy, libel, press freedom, and reporter's privilege) and Legal Guides (about the American court system; press freedom and censorship; access to records, meetings, & places; cyberlaw (internet and online media); libel & privacy; protecting sources & information; copyright; broadcasting; yearbooks; advertising & distribution; and advisers.
• Do we really still need Banned Books Week? (Ron Charles, Book World, WaPo, 9-26-18) '“There are so many places like in rural communities where you say, ‘Well, the book isn’t banned. It’s still been published. It’s still available on Amazon. It’s still in a bookstore.’ But let’s say you’re a young gay kid, and you go to your library, and David Levithan’s ‘Two Boys Kissing’ has been removed, and so you don’t know that it’s there. You don’t have a credit card to get it from Amazon. You can’t hop in a car if you’re 14 years old and drive to a bookstore. So the ban is not a trivial thing. It’s a deliberate suppression of a viewpoint that has real consequences for people.”' And: '“If I say, ‘I don’t want my child to read this,’ you have the right to do that,” LaRue acknowledges. “But when you try to remove it from the library, you’re saying that other people’s children don’t have the right to read it.” That, he suggests, is the hallmark of an intolerant society.'
• The Silencing of Prison Legal News (Victoria Mckenzie, The Crime Report, 6-12-18) Florida is the only state to ban Prison Legal News (PLN), and does so on the grounds that it carries ads for services prohibited in Florida correctional facilities (e.g., three-way calling, pen pal services, and selling postage stamps for cash). "The decision contained many pages of anecdotes about fraud schemes perpetrated by inmates, but did not cite testimony or evidence suggesting that viewing advertisements incites criminal activity. While Florida is currently the only state to ban the monthly publication, the decision highlights similar disputes over prison censorship now in play across the country. In practice, the burden of accommodating prisoners’ rights to access legal and other reading material across the United States—as well as the First Amendment rights of a publisher to access its audience—has largely fallen on the shoulders of one man...Paul Wright, founder and director of the Human Rights Defense Center (HDRC),who has devoted the past 28 years to getting legal news and resources to inmates....Wright started the magazine from inside a maximum security prison in Washington state with another inmate and just $300....Since then, it’s grown into a 72-page authoritative and unmatchable resource for inmates seeking legal advice for their complaints, ranging from medical neglect, beatings and excessive use of force, to abuse of solitary confinement and sexual assault behind bars." "Tom Julin, a First Amendment attorney based in Miami, tried to submit an amicus brief in 2016 on behalf of the Florida Press Association and several other media organizations. But the state vehemently opposed the brief and, in a rare move, barred the press from weighing in on a case about the First Amendment rights of a news publication."
• An 87-year-old’s obituary said Trump ‘hastened’ her death. A local paper wouldn’t run it. (Meagan Flynn, WaPo, 1-16-19) The Courier-Journal declined to publish: The Trump quip would need to be removed, the family was told, or the $1,684 obituary wouldn’t run at all. Now, more than two weeks after Williams’s memorial services, the paper and its owner, Gannett, are apologizing following a backlash on social media.
• NCAC Opposes Removal of To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn from Minnesota Classrooms (National Coalition Against Censorship, 2-7-18) Based on a history of complaints about the use of racial slurs, both To Kill a Mockingbird and Huck Finn are being removed from all schools in the Duluth, MN school district. They'll remain in libraries, but will not be taught in classrooms. (And they are SO teachable when you teach them in historical context.)
• ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Returns to Mississippi School’s Reading List After Outcry (Christine Hauser, NY Times, 10-27-17) "The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee has been taught in countless classrooms and influenced generations of readers. Set during the Depression in a small Alabama town where a black man is accused of raping a white woman, its exploration of racism, injustice and discrimination has placed it among the most banned or challenged works of literature in the United States, according to the American Library Association."
• The U.K. Is About To Regulate Online Porn, and Free Speech Advocates Are Terrified (Billy Perrigo, Time, 8-20-18) 'By the end of 2018, all commercial porn sites [in the UK} will have to find a way to “effectively verify” that their users in the U.K. are over 18 years old, and block access to everyone else. That doesn’t mean just ticking a box – it means advanced verification systems where online porn users must prove their identity. “This is the first example in a western country of an official state Internet censor being introduced,” Jerry Barnett, a campaigner for free speech and sexual freedom, tells TIME....Once the U.K.’s block is in place, other types of legal content could be put behind barriers or even removed from the Internet, according to the non-profit Open Rights Group, which campaigns for digital civil liberties. It warns that websites containing content on suicide, anorexia or unpalatable political views could be next. That, it says, “poses a major threat to the free speech of U.K. citizens.... some of the most ardent critics of the block who TIME spoke to still agreed that young children should, somehow, be protected from accessing pornography. The core of the dispute is over how to do it, and what the side-effects will be.”
• Banning Books Silences Stories (Millie Davis, National Council of Teachers of English) People who ban books "fear the reality—even in fiction—of the people in the books who are different from themselves, who speak and behave differently, who have different ways of thinking. Four of the top ten books [on ALA’s Top Ten Challenged Book List for 2017] were challenged for LGBT themes while others were challenged for profanity, for sex, for topics such as teen suicide or drug use... What is it about people who fear others’ stories? I don’t know. But I do know that stories—all stories—are how we make sense of the world."
• Censorpedia: An Interactive Database of Censorship Incidents (National Coalition Against Censorship). A participatory wiki of censorship incidents from the Iron Age to the 21st Century. The archive builds on The File Room, an internationally renowned 1994 art project by Muntadas, which contains over 1000 censorship incidents from around the world.
• CMS threatens to bar Modern Healthcare from press calls after reporter refuses to alter story (Felice J. Freyer, Covering Health, AHCJ, 2-5-18) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services threatened to ban reporter Virgil Dickson from participating in the federal agency’s telephone news conferences after he refused to delete three sentences from a published story that apparently had rankled CMS Administrator Seema Verma.
• Caravaggio killed a man. Should we therefore censor his art? (Svetlana Mintcheva, The Guardian, 2-3-18) To remove art because it is tainted by the sins of its maker sets an impossible standard for art institutions. Yet that is what is happening. "In these politically polarized times, we need to value art institutions as places where we can think about complexity – including about how artists of such creative gifts can be such awful human beings - rather than treat them as churches obligated to issue judgments about who merits salvation and who doesn’t."
• Banned Books Week Resists Censorship and Celebrates the Freedom to Read (Peter Montgomery, People For the American Way Foundation, 9-25-17)
• Banned Books Week Celebrating the Freedom to Read: September 24 - September 30, 2017. Links to many useful resources.
• The First Amendment in Schools: A Resource Guide (National Coalition Against Censorship)
• “Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” ~ Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2 Live Crew, Decoded , 1990
• 16 Quotes from Great Authors for Banned Books Week (Tom Blunt, Signature, 9-18-17)
• Books on the Chopping Block (check out the list) is City Lit's annual 60-minute performance of dramatic readings of short excerpts from these 10 banned books, in cooperation with the American Library Association, in special events, libraries and bookstores in and around Chicago.
• Banned Together: A Censorship Cabaret (presented by the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund) to be performed in sixteen U.S. cities during Banned Books Week Sept. 24-30, 2017.
• Judge: Racism behind Arizona ban on TUSD's Mexican-American studies (Astrid Galvan, AP, Tucson.com, 8-23-17) Racism was behind an Arizona ban on ethnic studies that shuttered a popular Mexican-American Studies program at Tucson Unified School District, said U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima. The state enacted the ban with discriminatory intent, he said. TUSD dismantled its program to avoid losing state funding. The district hasn't responded to questions from The Associated Press about whether it would revive the program if the law is thrown out.
• The History (and Present) of Banning Books in America (Amy Brady, LitHub, 9-22-16) In 2016, the list of books challenged each year by American public libraries and schools included "Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Emily M. Danworth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Most of the titles are by LGBTQ authors and authors of color who write about life beyond white, straight, middle-class America." “There were over 300 book challenges in 2015,” said Chris Finan, Director of ABFE, in an interview. “And themes of race, ethnicity, and sexual preference have been a large part of why those books got challenged.” Then she takes us back into banned books history.
• Reasons for Banned Books (Libraries and Center for Academic Technology, Butler University) Among them: racial issues, encouragement of "damaging" lifestyles, blasphemous dialog, sexual situations or dialog, violence or negativity, presence of witchcraft, religious affiliations (unpopular religions), political bias, age inappropriate.
“Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don’t even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that’s wrong.” --Judy Blume, in a speech for Virtual Read Out, 2011
• The Last Book Seller (Mei Fong, PEN Hong Kong, 1-10-17) Chinese censorship has made Chinese publication of Mei Fong's book One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment. Publication by a Chinese publisher meant leaving key parts of the book out. "Authorities cracked down on advocacy of issues as innocuous as calls for clean air and calls to reduce sexual harassment. They have not only jailed these movement’s advocates, but in some cases their lawyers as well." And those controls extend now to Hong Kong. Many publishers have folded. The author has decided to make the self-published Chinese translation available for free in China.
• The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham
• Still more City Paper content censored (Fern Shen, Baltimore Brew, 3-1-14). An advertiser pressures withdrawal of a fairly withering review, eliciting outrage and probably wider readership of the story than there might have been without censorship. Here's the review.
• Project Censored (The News That Didn't Make the News)
• The banned 400-year-old Shakespearean speech being used for refugee rights today (Anne Quito, Quartz, 9-21-16)
• A familiar Russian playbook (Fred Hiatt, Washington Pot, 6-29-14)." In fall 1958, when Russian author Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Soviet regime unleashed a campaign of vilification against their native son so brutal that it drove the author, then 68, to contemplate suicide. Pasternak’s crime was to have written a novel, “Dr. Zhivago,” that did not glorify the Bolshevik Revolution — and to allow the book to be published abroad when Communist authorities banned it at home." See what both sides in the Cold War did in The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book . See Alan Furst's review "Finn and Couvée have taken a complex and difficult history with many moving parts and turned it into a kind of intellectual thriller."
• Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) . See its case files.
• Changing the World, One Word at a Time! (powerful video of three teenagers on the wrong lessons we learn from society, on Queen Latifah show)
• Campaign for Core Freedoms (PEN American Center)
• Katherine Anne Porter Award for First Amendment Defender (new $10,000 award from PEN American Center)
• PEN/​Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award (projects to further their work against censorship or to writers who have been in dire financial straits as a result of political persecution, often consisting of imprisonment)
• The Freedom to Read Statement (American Library Association)
• Citizen Media Law Project blog
• Free speech blog, blog archved as Index on Censorship. Check out its blog roll.
• Katherine Paterson: The Risks of Great Literature . The celebrated and banned children’s book author speaks with us about the fears of censors, the deaths of children, and what we need to risk for literature. (Guernica)
• French Censorship: Copyright Laws, "Private Life," and Biography (Hazel Rowley, The American Scholar, Winter 2009). Fascinating.
• Spam Filters Threaten Free Speech on the Internet (James McGrath Morris, WaPo, 11-28-08) In most cases, both the intended e-mail sender and recipients remain unaware of the censorship that spam filters impose. Only rarely is the sender informed when e-mail is quarantined or diverted. Such behind-the-scenes machinations make fighting back almost impossible. Go to Spamhaus for threat intelligence and a lookup tool for IP addresses. See Spamhaus FAQs.
• Internet black holes: where storytelling waits (13 countries where Internet access is restricted through censorship), map from Reporters Sans Frontieres, as posted on "Write now is good"
• Global Campaign Against Impunity. The countries with the highest rates of murder of journalists (censorship by murder): Russia and the Philippines (Committee to Protect Journalists)
• Diario de Juarez editorial, in translation (LA Times, 9-24-10, a front-page editorial published by the main newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, publicly offers to the Juarez drug gangs what news organizations across Mexico practice widely for their survival: self-censorship in exchange for no more assassinations of journalists.
• Internet Filtering: Beware the Cybercensors (Barbara Miner, Rethinking Schools, compares blocking software to the banning of books from libraries). Partial article for nonmembers.
• Freedom of the press

• The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA official site) enacted by Congress in 1966 to give the public access to information held by the federal government -- the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government.
• Combating Government Secrecy Through Freedom of Information: A Best Practices Guide to FOIA Collaboration (PDF, Open the Government)
• How journalists can navigate privacy laws Annie Waldman, NASW, 6-14-18)
• FOIA exemptions (explained literally and in implications, by FOIAdvocates) "The FOIA maintains nine exemptions to the general presumption of mandatory disclosure. 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1)-(9). Generally, Congress intended the exemptions to protect against disclosure of information which would substantially harm national defense or foreign policy, individual privacy interests, business proprietary interests, and the efficient operation of governmental functions." As the 9th Circuit wrote in one court decision: "The Freedom of Information Act embodies a strong policy of disclosure and places a duty to disclose on federal agencies. As the district court recognized, 'disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of the Act.'"

• In the hunt for sustainability, DocumentCloud and MuckRock are joining together as one organization (Christine Schmidt, NiemanLab, 6-11-18) MuckRock and DocumentCloud are joining into one organization on the quest for sustainability as a hub for some of journalism’s most widely-used tools for transparency. MuckRock has a payment system for users and organizations, which DocumentCloud is eager to introduce. DocumentCloud has brand recognition and is good at showing it’s important to the journalism community and getting foundational support. MuckRock users have also asked for annotation and others features that DocumentCloud already has.
• Muckrock, a U.S. -based organization that assists anyone in filing governmental requests for information through the Freedom of Information Act, then publishes the returned information on its website and encourages journalism around it. Fascinating and essential. See MuckRock makes FOIA requests easy, but will reporters use it? (Justin Ellis, Nieman Lab, 10-21-10).
• On the health beat, public records can be a lifeline (Michael Morisy, Covering Health, AHCJ, 3-1-18) AHCJ invited organizations devoted to government transparency to write about how their work can help health care reporters.
• From veteran State House reporters to brand new bots, everyone loves FOIA (Michael Morisy, MuckRock, 3-30-18) Tips from a reporter who has used FOIA for over 20 years.
• How one AP veteran exposes corruption in Illinois (Jackie Spinner, CJR, 3-27-18) Over 20 years, Associated Press’ John O’Connor has exposed corruption at nearly every level of Illinois government. His reporting on lies and government waste across five administrations have been one of few constants in a statehouse press corps that, like most others, is a shell of what it was a decade ago....O’Connor had presumed the Department of Veterans Affairs would deny his FOIA request under a section that exempts documents considered to be “preliminary,” and in which opinions are expressed. However, that exemption is overridden if the head of the public body describes the document in public, which the director of the VA had done before a legislative committee. O’Connor got the report, he says, “because I know the law.”

• The Strange Politics of ‘Classified’ Information (Beverly Gage, NY Times Magazine, 8-22-17) "The new system also weighted the political scales in favor of officials adept at hiding unflattering facts and publicizing useful ones. At the F.B.I., the former director J. Edgar Hoover insisted that investigative files be kept secret, waging repeated battles to keep them away from the courts and Congress. But he also became a master of the leak, parceling out choice tidbits to reporters at strategic moments. The competing factions in today’s White House appear to understand this technique..."
• Where the Sun Don't Shine (Paul D. Thacker, Slate, 3-2013) President Obama promised transparency and open government. He failed miserably. So why do Washington watchdog groups look the other way?
• Why it's OK for taxpayers to 'snoop' on scientists (Charles Seife and Paul Thacker, L.A. Times, 8-21-15) If the public pays your salary, citizens have the right -- the duty, within limits -- to see and try to understand what you're doing. Scientists should be subject to the same rules as every other civil servant.
• AHCJ's Right to Know Committee (Association of Health Care Journalists)
• NYT’s Sarah Cohen will make you realize how much better your public records game could be (Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, 12-15-15) "Statistics are a starting point, not an end....think of statistics as a signpost: They can point you to the “micro data” underlying them. Once you’ve obtained such data through a records request, you can perform your own analysis, without worrying over how the data were massaged into shape....According to Cohen, the real problem for most reporters is that they know more than the public information officers (PIOs). As a result, reporters should do everything they can to help PIOs find what they’re looking for — help them help you."

• PIO Censorship in the Era of Trump (Kathryn Foxhall, SPJ's FOI committee, Sunshine Week, 3-13-17) "President Trump has already labeled major press outlets the “fake news media” and the “enemy of the people.” His administration has blocked major news outlets from a briefing because it didn’t like what they published."
• Excellence in Journalism conference Sept. 27-29, 2018 The SPJ - RTDNA conference in Baltimore, will include a session on Censorship by PIO. "Policies forbidding employees from unapproved communications with journalists are being enforced with
increasing aggressiveness, but they are almost certainly unconstitutional in
the government workplace and they may well violate federal labor laws in the
private sector."
• Open Records, Shuttered Labs: Ending Political Harassment of Public University Researchers (Claudia Polsky, SSRN, 3-14-18) Every U.S. state has an open records law — a statute that permits any person, for any reason, to access the records of public agencies. This article focuses on the "political harassment of public university professors by activists on the right and left, through the mechanism of open records requests." Polsky "argues that professors should never have been subject to public records laws in the first instance, both because they are not engaged in public governance, and because open records laws are fundamentally incompatible with academic freedom. It further argues that the best way to stanch the present records request intrusion into scholars’ work is to create a broad scholar-records exemption from existing state laws."
• Tips on prying loose records using FOIA requests, lawsuit (Fred Schulte, Association of Health Care Journalists Tip Sheet)

• Nothing to declare: Why U.S. border agency's vast stop and search powers undermine press freedom (Report Summary, Committee to Protect Journalists, 10-22-18) The ability of a government agent to scour a phone or laptop without any legal process is a chilling prospect, particularly for journalists working with whistleblowers. But that is exactly the prospect journalists crossing a U.S. border face thanks to the wide powers granted to Customs and Border Protection agents, who can search electronic devices without warrant, and question reporters about past and current work. To measure the impact these warrantless searches have on the media, CPJ and its partners at Reporters Without Borders sent an open call to journalists who have been stopped at a U.S. border. They identified 37 journalists who said they found the secondary screenings invasive. Of these cases, 20 said that border agents conducted warrantless searches of their electronic devices. You can download the full report.
• U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (Freedom of the Press Foundation, Committee to Protect Journalists, and a coalition of media partners) An online database cataloguing domestic violations of press freedom, especially by governmental bodies and elected officials....The report pins part of the blame for the U.S. slide on President Trump and his regular attacks on the media. The president often uses the term "fake news" in describing the American media.
• Revealed: The Justice Dept's secret rules for targeting journalists with FISA court orders (Trevor Timm, Exec. Director, Freedom of the Press Foundation, 9-19-18). Read Targeting Journalists Under FISA: New Documents Reveal DOJ’s Secret Rules (Ramya Krishnan, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, 9-17-18) "For years, press advocates suspected that the government was relying on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of journalists and news organizations. New documents appear to confirm that suspicion." See also Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists (Cora Currier, The Intercept, 6-30-18)

• Press Freedoms in the United States 2017 (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, A Review of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, March 2018) There were 45 physical attacks on journalists in the U.S. last year, and 34 arrests. There were at least
15 cases where law enforcement seized and in some cases even searched a journalist’s equipment, such as cellphones and cameras. At about p. 8, see How to Protect Yourself When Covering a Protest.
• One dangerous year: Journalists under threat in 2017 (Christie Chisholm, Denise Southwood, and Alexandra Ellerbeck, CJR, Winter 2018) Seventy-six percent of the journalists arrested in the US in 2017 were apprehended during just three events: protests in St. Louis, Missouri, following the acquittal of former police officer Jason Stockley; in Washington, DC, during Donald Trump’s inauguration; and at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Source: The US Press Freedom Tracker)
Independent journalists account for 75 cases, or 29 percent of all members of the press who were imprisoned in 2017. Fifty-one percent of journalists jailed for their work are detained in Turkey, China, or Egypt. Thirty-three percent of the journalists killed (worldwide, and mostly outside of the US) in 2017 were independent journalists. This is one article in The Fear Issue: Threats of CJR.
• When it comes to press freedom, America is no longer a ‘beacon’ for the world (Jon Allsop, CJR, 2-13-18) “We depend on the US to stand up for press freedom at the United Nations....It’s very hard when you have a president with this rhetoric and lack of normative power.” “The US has also been exporting press threats unrelated to Trump. Facebook and other social networks, for example, are US-based and often have a US-centric view of how their services should operate. Ingram touched on Facebook’s experiments in countries like Cambodia, where it recently removed news articles from users’ main feeds. While Facebook saw this as a kind of product-centric A/​B test, it had serious consequences for citizens: In Cambodia, most people get their news from Facebook, and the country’s autocratic prime minister, Hun Sen, has made the site a key plank of his communications strategy. 'Facebook is a massive double-edged sword,' Ingram said. 'In fact, if there’s a sword that has more than two edges, Facebook is that sword.'”

• The absurdity of World Press Freedom Day: A brief history (Joel Simon, CJR, 5-2-18) "At the moment when information is being weaponized, the historic defenders of press freedom, the US and Europe, are failing to step up... the president of the United States is engaged in permanent war with the media and declares journalists to be enemies of the American people. Donald Trump shows no interest in defending the international system that has supported press freedom for the past two decades. Without global leadership, there is little consequence for countries that violate press freedom norms–whether it’s the Turkish government jailing journalists in record numbers or Israeli snipers shooting reporters as they cover the ongoing protests in Gaza, or a suicide bomb in Kabul targeted at journalists."
• Censorship Creep Is Setting In as Social Media Companies Try to Stay Ahead of European Lawmakers (Tim Cushing, TechDirt, 3-15-18) "...much of the content being taken down by Google and others isn't even illegal under more extreme speech laws passed in European nations. The laws written in response to tragedies have managed to turn social media platforms into tools of government oppression....Companies headquartered in the nation with the most free speech protections are turning their back on protecting free speech. Overblown fears of radicalization have resulted in the removal of content with inherent journalistic value (not to mention possible investigative value) and efforts to clamp down on something no one can seem to define ("fake news") is turning American companies against American values....More speech is always better than less speech. But the snowballs rolling downhill from Google, Facebook, and Twitter are gathering speed. And those who feel the only speech worth protecting is speech they like are winning, in some cases without even having to lift a legislative finger."
• A Libel Suit Threatens Catastrophe for the Climate of Public Debate (Michael A. Carvin and Anthony Dick, WSJ, 2-5-17) Michael Mann sues to silence critics, and errant courts ignore the First Amendment to help him. He reports on climate change (which he believes in) but critics question his numbers. So he sues them for defamation.
• BookExpo 2017: At PEN America First Amendment Panel, Different Takes On Protecting Speech (John Maher, Publishers Weekly, 6-2-17) "BookExpo and PEN America's joint panel on Thursday afternoon, "The First Amendment Resistance," found activists and speech advocates from various industries debating the ethical and civil responsibilities writers and publishers have in an era of partisan enmity and so-called alternative facts."

• Access denied: Reporters say federal officials, data increasingly off limits (Paul Farhi, Wash Post, 3-30-15) Reporters often encounter closed doors when seeking data and interviews from the administration.
• The Memory Hole 2, run by Russ Kick, saves important documents from oblivion, so when an important government web page disappears (e.g., EPA and FAA regulations that were withdrawn/​deleted when the Trump Administration took office), you may find it here. Likewise, the deleted Trump tweets. You may also find many things on The Internet Archive (The Wayback Machine).
• Open the Government.org . Its focus issues: Improving access, opening government, preserving records, reducing secrecy, surveillance transparency.
• The Press Should Skip the White House Briefings (John A. Farrell, Op-ed, NY (1-24-17) "Get out of the press room, and look for access elsewhere."
• Holding Government Accountable (Open the Government.org's links to partners in Holding Government Accountable; Ensuring and Improving Access to Information; Reforming National Security Secrecy; Protecting Civil Liberties; Opening State and Local Government)
• That R. Kelly ‘cult’ story almost never ran. Thank Hulk Hogan for that. (Margaret Sullivan, WaPo, 7-30-17) After Jim DeRogatis, the veteran Chicago rock critic, reported for months on a stunning story about R&B singer R. Kelly and the young women said to be under his psychological and sexual control, it came time to get it published. Many venues turned it down, for fear of lawsuits like Hulk Hogan's invasion-of-privacy suit "bankrolled by billionaire Peter Thiel, a confidant of President Trump."

• 2017 World Press Freedom Index -- tipping point (Reporters Without Borders). The U.S. again ranks 47th in press freedom. "The 2017 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reflects a world in which attacks on the media have become commonplace and strongmen are on the rise. We have reached the age of post-truth, propaganda, and suppression of freedoms – especially in democracies. " "Donald Trump’s rise to power in the United States and the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom were marked by high-profile media bashing, a highly toxic anti-media discourse that drove the world into a new era of post-truth, disinformation, and fake news."
• Talk to the Hand (Jenni Bergal, Nieman Reports, Spring 2014). Public health reporters say federal agencies are restricting access and information, limiting their ability to cover crucial health issues. Transparency crucial for reporting on health stories.
• When Censorship Becomes a Cultural Norm (Kathryn Foxhall, Editor & Publisher, 5-16-14)
• Judge Says Reporter for New York Times Must Testify at ‘Baby Hope’ Trial (James C. McKinley, NY Times, 8-4-16) When journalists witness or report on criminal activities, can they be forced to testify in court?
• 2013 World Press Freedom Index: Dashed hopes after spring (Reporters Without Borders) 2013 World Press Freedom Index
Reporters Without Borders launches media freedom “indicator”

• Sunshine Laws (U.S. open meeting laws, often referred to as “sunshine laws,” requiring agency officials to hold certain meetings in public) "These laws do not necessarily ensure that members of the public will be allowed to address the agency, but they do guarantee that the public and the media can attend the meetings."
• State Secrets: Open government laws across the nation (Journal Sentinel) How open is your state government? Select a state to see its report card. With state and local government secrecy on the rise in many U.S. jurisdictions, this database offers a view of state open records and open meetings laws, and provides information about how to get what you are looking for, as well as ensure that government is operating in the sunlight.
• Local governments hide public records, face few consequences (Miranda S. Spivack, The Center for Investigative Reporting, Journal Sentinel, 11-16-16)
• Watchdog group charts open government winners and losers
• Open Government Plans Audit (OpenTheGovernment.org, "Americans for Less Secrecy, More Democracy", 2010 )
• Public contracts shrouded in secrecy (Miranda S. Spivack, The Center for Investigative Reporting and Journal Sentinel, 11-16-16)
• Sunshine Week. NPC, SPJ and the Education Writers Association presented two surveys on press office interference, which show that the problem is pervasive. Most reporters said they felt the public is not getting the information it needs because of the barriers.
• State Sunshine Laws Promise More Transparency (Carol Cruzan Morton, The Lund Report, 9-6-17) Less than a month after Anthony Montwheeler was released from state psychiatric custody, he was charged with kidnapping and stabbing to death his ex-wife and killing a Vale, Oregon, man in a car crash while eluding police. At the December 2016 public hearing that led to his discharge, Montwheeler testified he had faked mental illness 20 years earlier to avoid prison for kidnapping and other crimes. "The case points to a gap in the legal system," writesMalheur Enterprise. "There is no provision – no consequences — for what to do with someone who fakes a mental illness after criminal conduct." Morton: "The next question was: How could a person feign mental illness for 20 years and then be released back into the community, despite being considered a threat? To help answer that, Zaitz had asked for the exhibits, including the mental health assessments, considered at the discharge hearing held by the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB). He also directed a request to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), the agency with oversight for the State Hospital. Both agencies disagreed with the AG’s assessment that public interest outweighed health privacy....This disclosure tussle may have been the most extreme case in recent years of clashes and complaints about public records and meetings in Oregon related to healthcare. Interestingly, it occurred against a backdrop of broad new reforms in the public records laws that promise greater government transparency."
• Sunshine Week (SPJ)
• New tools aim to help journalists track removal of information from federal websites (Rachel Bergman, Covering Health, AHCJ, 3-15-18)
• Web Integrity Project (WIP) "Government websites are changing the information they supply related to topics such as sexual orientation and women’s health, and the Web Integrity Project (WIP) at The Sunlight Foundation, a national nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., has been on a mission to track those changes."
• How federal agencies are quietly removing government Web resources, and why it matters (Toly Rinberg and Andrew Bergman, Sunlight Foundation, 11-15-17)
• Sunshine Week website (Open government is good government) Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.
• U.S. government secrecy making historical research difficult (James McGrath Morris, Aljazeera America, 10-23-13). By redacting all documents, no matter how benign, the government is throwing its past down the memory hole....It will not be long before the government will include all of its historical past among its secrecy prerogatives."
• Mediated Access: Local Reporters’ Perceptions of Public
Information Officers’ Media Control Efforts (PDF, Carolyn S. Carlson & Megan Roy, SPJ report, 2014)
• Transparency Watch (an IRE blog tracking the fight for open records)

"The truth is that although the Supreme Court has not closed the door on a First Amendment-based right of journalists to protect their confidential sources’ identities, it has yet to embrace such a right in so many words. And in the absence of a definitive ruling from the Supreme Court, some lower courts have rejected the notion of [such a] right in a number of contexts. “The result has been that, in at least some cases, reporters have either gone to jail or been ordered to pay significant, escalating fines. The federal shield law that then-Congressman Pence championed during the Bush and Obama administrations would have been a comparatively good deal for working journalists. The next time there is an opportunity to get it passed (and there will be one), journalists would be well served to line up enthusiastically behind that legislation.” -- from What some reporters get wrong about the First Amendment (Jonathan Peters, CJR, 2-5-18)
• Shield Law 101: Frequently Asked Questions (Society of Professional Journalists) What is a shield law?
• The Reporter's Privilege (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press) A compendium of information on the reporter's privilege -- the right not to be compelled to testify or disclose sources and information in court -- in each state and federal circuit.
• Shield laws and protection of sources by state (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)prote
• The limits of promising confidentiality (very practical overview and advice from Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)
• Shield laws and protection of sources by state (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)
• On shame and shield law (Sonny Albarado, SPJ, on fight for a federal shield law to protect journalists and their sources from unwarranted snooping by government prosecutors and other lawyers, 5-20-13)
• Shield laws and journalist’s privilege: The basics every reporter should know (Jonathan Peters, Columbia Journalism Review, 8-22-16) "What is a shield law, exactly? When can a government official require a reporter to disclose sources or information? Who counts as a journalist under a shield law? What types of sources or information are protected? Is there a big difference between a subpoena and a search warrant? Why a reporter’s privilege exists (sometimes). Excellent primer for journalists (and those who count on their maintaining confidentiality).
• State Shield Laws (Digital Media Law)
• Shield Laws in the United States (Wikipedia)
• Federal shield law supporters examine whether law would protect James Risen (Jeff Zalesin | Reporter's Privilege, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 7-22-13)
• Number of states with shield law climbs to 40 (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 2011, sidebar)
• Journalist Shield Law. (C-Span) Kurt Wimmer, counsel for the Newspaper Association of America, talked about the the Free Flow of Information Act of 2013, being sponsored by bipartisan members of Congress, and answered questions.
• Reporter Shield Laws, Jun 14, 2007 Witnesses testified about the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007. The act included procedures through which disclosure of confidential information from a journalist or a communication service provider may be compelled. They talked about proposals for federal shield laws, source confidentiality, recent investigations into reports activities and actions by government personnel, free speech concerns, and possible exceptions for national security cases.
• Clymer on Media Shield Law Steven Clymer, a former D.A. and U.S. attorney, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the proposed media shield law. Clip from 2005.
• Proposed Media Shield Law Leads To Debate Over Who Is A “Journalist” (Doug Mataconis, Outside the Beltway, 9-13-13) He asks, Is the First Amendment irrelevant to a discussion of media shield laws? " The "Senate is debating a bill that would extend a testimonial privilege to a certain class of people and, in order to do so, they have to come up with some definition that can guide the Courts. Given the fact that testimonial privileges are generally frowned upon in the law, and that there is a price to be paid if someone with relevant information in a criminal case is able to withhold that information, it makes sense that the definition should not be overly broad."
• Support grows for journalist shield law after Justice Dept. snoops on The Associated Press (Ben Wolfgang, Washington Times, 5-16-13)
• Federal media shield law makes prosecuting journalists even easier (Al Stefanelli, Syndicated News Services, 5-18-13). Obama wants exception on national security issues.

New NPR Ethics Handbook
• An Introduction To NPR's New Ethics Handbook (Edward Schumacher-Matos, NPR Ombudsman, 3-16-12). One document presents NPR's Guiding Principles. It is a table of contents to the other document, a handbook to help guide journalists through various ethical decisions with specific case studies. "More than a series of rules, the guideline is based on principles, which realistically reflects how journalism works and how so many day-to-day decisions come down to judgment calls by editors and reporters. The principles will help guide them in making decisions, without telling them what to do in each case. Sprinkled throughout the handbook are case studies that discuss the right decisions in other real-life circumstances....Among the central principles is that the new guidelines focus on standards of fairness and impartiality, as opposed to balance and objectivity. "
• New NPR Ethics Handbook
• NPR Tries to Get its Pressthink Right (Jay Rosen, PressThink 2-26-12). Rosen writes: NPR "now commits itself to avoiding the worst excesses of 'he said, she said' journalism. It says to itself that a report characterized by false balance is a false report. It introduces a new and potentially powerful concept of fairness: being 'fair to the truth.' My verdict: Bravo, NPR.
• NPR introduces new Ethics Handbook, appoints standards and practices editor (Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter, 2-24-12)

More resources about ethics

Why nonfiction writers should take a vow of chastity (Roy Peter Clark, Poynter, 7-25-12). Clark translates a public manifesto Danish screenwriters Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg propose for film writers into a parallel vow of artistic integrity for nonfiction writers.

• "A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.[1] Such lawsuits have been made illegal in many jurisdictions on the grounds that they impede freedom of speech."~Wikipedia entry on Strategic lawsuit against public participation. Wikipedia provides an excellent overview on the subject, plus many links to external sources and stories about various court cases. Start here!
• How TripAdvisor changed travel (Linda Kinstler, The Guardian, 8-17-18) "Faced with bad reviews, some American businesses turn to what are known as “Slapp” suits (strategic lawsuits against public participation). In many cases, when a business files a Slapp suit, its objective is not to win in court – US free speech laws protect negative reviews – but to bully the reviewer into deleting the offending comment. While many states have passed anti-Slapp legislation to protect consumers from censorship and mounting legal fees, most are not strong enough to discourage businesses from pursuing them." And someone writing a negative review of a facility, even if it is extremely damaging but true, can usually get the review taken down?

• What is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP)? (California Anti-Slapp Project)
• Anti-SLAPP laws (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press) Short for strategic lawsuits against public participation, SLAPPs have become an all-too-common tool for intimidating and silencing critics of businesses, often for environmental and local land development issues.
• SLAPP happy in America (Stephen Miller, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Fall 2010, from The News Media & The Law). Defending against meritless lawsuits and the need for a federal bill
• SLAPP Back (Nazanin Rafsanjani, On the Media, WNYC, 4-2-10) A SLAPP, or “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” is a little known but widespread threat to the First Amendment. SLAPPs are meritless suits brought by companies, individuals and sometimes the government, not to win, but to silence critics. Congress is now considering federal anti-SLAPP legislation. OTM producer Nazanin Rafsanjani investigates.
• In Melania Trump Suit, Journalist Invokes Maryland’s Anti-SLAPP Law (Zoe Tillman, Law.com, 10-18-15) Melania Trump’s defamation suit against a Maryland journalist is getting SLAPPed.
• Survival Guide to SLAPP Victims (California Anti-SLAPP Project) "Defamation, libel, slander … and other common SLAPP disguises."
• $1.3 Million in Anti-SLAPP Sanctions (David Lee, Courthouse News Service, 1-15-16) "FORT WORTH (CN) - Plaintiffs in a "revenge porn" defamation lawsuit must pay $1.3 million in anti-SLAPP sanctions and attorneys' fees and apologize for filing "baseless" claims in similar lawsuits to punish their critics, a Texas judge ruled. Tarrant County Judge Donald Cosby slapped plaintiffs James McGibney and ViaView Inc. with an order granting defendant Neal Rauhauser's motion for attorney's fees and sanctions. McGibney and ViaView sued 10 people in February 2014, alleging defamation and negligence, and accusing defendant Thomas Retzlaff of creating online aliases to stalk and harass ViaView."
• FAQs About SLAPPs (Public Participation Project, Fighting for Free Speech)
• Court: Radio Talk Show Host’s Statements Not Actionable (Sherri M. Okamoto, Metropolitan News-Enterprise, 4-27-09) Subheading: Panel Concludes Reasonable Listeners Would Consider Comments Opinion. "The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday upheld the dismissal of a defamation action against radio host Tom Martino and his nationally syndicated consumer advocacy talk show program, “The Tom Martino Show.” Affirming the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown of the District of Oregon granting Martino and Westwood One Inc.’s special motion to strike, the panel held Martino’s on-air statements to a frustrated consumer during the call-in portion of the show were non-actionable opinion. The case arose after consumer Melissa Feroglia called Martino’s radio show—which seeks to aid frustrated consumers with their problems—to complain about a personal watercraft she had purchased from John and Susan Gardner, the proprietors of Mt. Hood Polaris in Boring, Ore."
• MagicJack Legal Documents (Rob Beschizza, Boing Boing, 2-23-10) "Collected here are legal documents relating to MagicJack's defamation lawsuit against Boing Boing. The presiding judge ruled its case a SLAPP -- a strategic lawsuit against public participation -- and ultimately entered a judgment against it and made MagicJack pay most of our legal costs."

Liability insurance, or media liability insurance.WriteInsure media perils insurance, available through Axis Pro. The Authors Guild has entered into an agreement with Axis Pro, the world's leading underwriter of media liability insurance, to offer Guild members professional liability insurance. Coverage is available under WriteInsure for book authorship, freelance writing and blogging. I don't think you have to be a member of AG to get it; I don't know if the cost or terms are different if you buy it individually. If anyone else does, or if other writers organizations are also making it available, please let me know!

For Instant Ratings, Interviews with a Checkbook (Brian Stelter and Bill Carter, Media & Advertising, NY Times, 6-12-11). News shows that want exclusive interviews often pay one way or another to get them, often as licensing fees for photos or videos, covering hotel costs, even financing special events.

Historians and Human-Subjects Research by Christopher Shea (Wall Street Journal, Ideas Market 8-5-11). Shea asks: "How can oral (or, more generally, contemporary) historians escape inappropriate IRB scrutiny without denigrating their own work? Or, to back up a step, should they, in fact, have to go through the same procedures as social psychologists doing lab studies?" Zachary Schrag responds, in comments, that the National Research Act (42 USC 289) applies only to “biomedical and behavioral research,” which is not the kind of research historians do. On his Institutional Review Blog (about IRB overview of the humanities and social sciences), Schrag addresses the issue more fully in ANPRM: It's Time to Redefine Research.

• Privacy Law for Copy Editors (slideplayer of presentation notes, Arati Bechtel). Bechtel explains privacy ("the right to be left alone") and gives examples (citing cases) of four types (or torts) of invasion of privacy: publishing private facts; intrusion; appropriation; and false light. With class exercises.
• Consent the best defense against invasion of privacy lawsuits (Pat McNees, Writers and Editors blog). The right of privacy (essentially “the right to be left alone”) is your right to control and protect the public use of your identity. There are four types of invasion of privacy: false light, intrusion, disclosure, and misappropriation (explained here). Misappropriating the right of publicity, on the other hand, is an invasion (without their consent) of a person’s right to benefit from commercial exploitation of their name or likeness.
• Reporters Recording Guide (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press). Who owns the copyright--the reporter or the interviewee? What if a third party records the interview? Read this whole entry! This site contains many helpful articles on privacy and journalism.
• Online privacy for journalists by Michael Dagan (PDF) How to safeguard your communications, browsing, and data, from any unwanted "big brother" or intruder--indirectly how to protect a source.
• What Is VPN For? VPN Benefits Explained (Claudio R., Anonymster, 1-18-17) A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is basically a series of computers networked together over the Internet, so you bypass the server of your ISP (internet service provider), so that nobody can snoop into your personal affairs. Explains how VPN encryption and protocols work and how they can protect your internet connection. Reviews best VPN systems.
• Edward Snowden Explains How To Reclaim Your Privacy (Michah Lee, The Intercept, 11-12-15)
• KeePassX (a free, open source, cross-platform password manager)
• HTTPS Everywhere (Electronic Frontier Foundation) HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox, Chrome, and Opera extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.
• AxisPro's Loss Prevention Guide (this PDF booklet provides basic info on defamation, defamation, invasion of privacy (more complex than you might expect), trademark infringement, and copyright infringement).
• Legalized sale of browser histories should worry journalists (Susan McGregor, Columbia Journalism Review, 4-12-17) "The blowback has been intense to President Trump’s decision last week to back a congressional rollback of recently adopted FCC privacy rules—rules designed to protect web users from the reuse or sale of their online traffic histories without their explicit consent....The first step is for journalists and media organizations to privilege the use of HTTPS websites and services as much as possible: While your ISP can still see which domains you’re connecting to (such as duckduckgo.com), they cannot generally see which individual pages you’ve visited. Similarly, news organizations should protect their readers by implementing HTTPS on their own sites.
• A simple step to make news sites more secure (Susan McGregor, CJR, 12-5-16) "The vast majority of mainstream news organizations still publish to HTTP domains, making it impossible to guarantee either their readers’ privacy or the authenticity and accuracy of what those readers are seeing. News sites that publish on HTTPS domains, however, can guarantee all of this–without additional effort from users." A good explanation of information I didn't realize I needed!
• Myths and fallacies of “Personally identifiable information” (Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov, Viewpoints, Communications of the ACM, June 2010).Developing effective privacy protection technologies is a critical challenge for security and privacy research as the amount and variety of data collected about individuals increase exponentially. Any information that distinguishes one person from another can be used for re-identifying data.
• The Motherboard Guide to VPNs (Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Motherboard, 3-24-17) The easiest way to hide your internet browsing from your provider.is to use a commercial Virtual Private Network or VPN. VPNs add a layer between your computer and the internet, forcing your connection to go through another server before going out onto the internet, and hide your browsing habits to your ISP.
• 5 best VPNs in 2017 (The Best VPN) 30 service providers rated by speed, logging policies, and encryption.
• The Motherboard Guide to Not Getting Hacked (Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai and Joseph Cox, Motherboard, 8-2-16) The basic steps to take to keep yourself, and your data, safe online.
• Do Internet-Connected Toys Pose a Privacy Risk? Tanya Rivero interviews Georgia Wells, WSJ video, 12-7-16) Advocacy groups allege that Internet-connected toys, including several children's dolls, pose a privacy risk to consumers. Is Genesis Toys recording children's voices and what they say, without parental knowledge or consent?
• Coalition Letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kelly Opposing Collection of Passwords at the Border (Center for Democracy & Technology, CDT, 3-10-17)
• Gawker’s Demise and the Trump-Era Threat to the First Amendment (Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker, 12-19/​26-16) 'Ever since New York Times v. Sullivan, in 1964, established the rule that, in order to prevail, public figures must prove that stories about them are both false and were published with “actual malice,” libel cases have proved extremely difficult for plaintiffs to win. “We always felt that privacy was more of a fruitful ground for plaintiffs to sow, because in those cases they did not have to prove falsity or actual malice, the way they did in libel cases,” George Freeman, the executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, told me. “The whole celebrity culture just gives rise to more of these issues.” The Internet, with its absence of gatekeepers and its unlimited number of voices, has scrambled the traditional understanding of invasion-of-privacy cases. “We are in a different world now, sparked in part by the Hulk Hogan case and by a push-the-envelope media that doesn’t abide by traditional journalistic rules,” Gajda said.'
• The Man Who Made Off With John Updike’s Trash (Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic, 8-28-14) Who really owns a great writer’s legacy? The ethics of collecting celebrity trash.
• Facebook: Where Your Friends Are Your Worst Enemies (Packet Storm, 6-21-13)
• Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance by Julia Angwin
• Give Me Back My Online Privacy (Elizabeth Doskin, WSJ, 3-23-14), Internet users tap tech tools that protect them from prying eyes.
• Disconnect Search: Google In Private (Thomas Claburn, Information Week, 3-24-14) Disconnect app delivers search engine privacy, with "pay what you want" pricing.
• Tor Project (a browser that allows you to search the Internet anonymously, or pseudonymously)
• Anonymizer International(Torproject.org) "keeps your online activities safe, private, and secure"
• •HIPAA, electronic health records, medical privacy laws, and patient rights
• I Know What You Think of Me (Tim Kreider, NY Times Opinion section, 6-15-13). Reason No. 697 Why the Internet Is Bad — the dreadful consequence of hitting “reply all” instead of “reply” or “forward.”
• How to Invent a Person Online (Curtis Wallen, Atlantic, 7-23-14). Is it possible to be truly anonymous in the digital world?
• Here's what the Feds have on you: Everything (Erik Sherman, MoneyWatch, CBS 6-7-13)
• What makes government spies scarier than corporate snooping? (Timothy Noah, NSNBC, 6-11-13)
• Herbert Mitgang's obituary (Douglas Martin, NY Times, 11-21-13) focuses on his expose of government spying. His "1988 book, Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America’s Greatest Authors, reported that the agencies were suspicious not just of radical views but also of liberal ones. Mr. Mitgang said the Nobel Prize winners Sinclair Lewis and William Faulkner were monitored in part because they favored racial equality." Ernest Hemingway's file "criticized his muscular writing style and, probably most damning, said that he had once likened the F.B.I. to the Gestapo." So much for freedom of the press.
• A.C.L.U. Files Lawsuit Seeking to Stop the Collection of Domestic Phone Logs (Charlie Savage, NY Times, 6-11-13) Congress never openly voted to authorize the collection of logs of hundreds of millions of domestic calls, but some lawmakers were secretly briefed. Some members of Congress have backed the program as a useful counterterrorism tool; others have denounced it.
• Should Google serve the state – or serve its customers? (John Naughton, The Guardian, 6-8-13) The web giant is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to privacy for users. Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, lectured about ideas at Cambridge. "The rock is that the national security state...The hard place is corporate terror that their users will become alienated by the realisation that personal communications cannot be safely entrusted to internet companies based in the US." "In the US, he argued, people worried more about the power of the state rather than that of corporations, whereas in Europe people seemed to trust the state but mistrust companies."
• Can’t Hide in the Cloud (Vikas Bajaj, NY Times, 6-15-13). Most users could do more to safeguard themselves, but no software or service can protect them fully from determined government agencies, criminals or hackers.
• A Reporter's Guide to Medical Privacy Law (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, on medical privacy vs. the public interest)
• Tape-recording laws at a glance (state by state, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)
• A Writer's Guide to Defamation and Invasion of Privacy (Amy Cook, Writer's Digest, 9-15-10)
• Electronic Frontier Foundation articles on privacy issues, including anonymity, biometrics, The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, the U.S. wiretapping law passed in 1994), cell tracking, cyber security legislation, digital books, Do Not Track, international privacy standards, locational privacy, mandatory data retention, mass surveillance technologies, national security letters, NSA spying, online behavioral tracking, PATRIOT Act, pen trap, printers, radio-frequency identification (RFID), search engines, search incident to arrest, social networks, travel screening.
• Should Personal Data Be Personal? Europe Moves to Protect Online Privacy (Somini Sengupta, NY Times Sunday Review 2-4-12)
• Google Says It Collected Private Data by Mistake (Brad Stone, NY Times, 5-14-10, about Google's answers to questions from regulators in Europe about Street View).
• How a Single Student Is Transforming Facebook’s Privacy Policy In Europe (Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo, 2-8-12)
• The Problem With Europe’s Strict Privacy Laws (Christopher Wolf, Slate 3-14-12). An elderly German named Heinrich Boere recently invoked an EU privacy law to file a complaint against two Dutch reporters for secretly videotaping an interview with him at his nursing home. "The criminal invasion-of-privacy case against the reporters put into sharp focus the automatic and inflexible application of privacy law in circumstances where flexibility and discretion appear to be called for." Read this important article!
• Forget Privacy: What the Internet Knows About You by Jessica Bennett (Newsweek 10-22-10) and The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets by Julia Angwin (first in Wall Street Journal series on the fast-growing business of spying on consumers). Watch your back!
• 10 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Online (Michael Fertik 10-22-10)
• How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet (Kate Murphy, Personal Tech, NY Times 5-2-12). "You know that dream where you suddenly realize you’re stark naked? You’re living it whenever you open your browser." Lots of practical tips for keeping your private messages private.
• The Candidates Are Monitoring Your Mouse -- privacy advocates are worried (Heather Green, BusinessWeek, 8-27-08)
• SPLC Legal Brief: Invasion of Privacy Law (Student Press Law Center, SPLC, a helpful outline of key issues)
• Naming Names: Identifying Minors (SPLC, aimed at student newspapers)
• Facebook Is Using You (Lori Andrews, NY Tijmes, 2-5-12). "We need a do-not-track law, similar to the do-not-call one. Now it’s not just about whether my dinner will be interrupted by a telemarketer. It’s about whether my dreams will be dashed by the collection of bits and bytes over which I have no control and for which companies are currently unaccountable." Andrews is author of I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy
• Privacy Subtleties of GMail (Brad Templeton)
• The Death of the Cyberflâneur (Evgeny Morozov, NY Times Opinion, 2-5-12) Mr. Schrems was intrigued and somewhat rattled. He wasn’t worried about anything in particular. Rather, he felt a vague disquiet about what Facebook could do with all that information about him in the future.
• Internet Privacy *Wikipedia, a helpful overview of issues -- check its Notes.
• How Privacy Vanishes Online (Steve Lohr, NY Times Technology section, 3-16-10). Using bits of data from social network sites, researchers gleaned names, ages and even Social Security numbers.
• EFF's Top 10 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy (Stanton McCandlish, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 4-9-02).
• Who owns your Twitter post? Judge Rules That Protester Can’t Oppose Twitter Subpoena (Colin Moynihan, City Room, NY Times 4-24-12). Tweeter Harris "lacked the standing to oppose the subpoena because Twitter’s policies required that he agree to grant the company a 'worldwide, non-exclusive royalty-free' right to distribute messages, which are publicly viewable. He labeled “understandable, but without merit” the defendant’s contention that he had a privacy interest in his tweets."
• EPIC Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools (there's a whole new world here!)
• Privacy Journal (Robert Ellis Smith's newsletter on personal privacy, online and elsewhere)Privacy.
• Scroogle, an ad-free Google search proxy that prevents the searcher's data being stored by Google (as explained on Technically Speaking Radio).
• Power And The Internet (Bruce Schneier's essay appeared as a response to Edge's annual question: "What *Should* We Be Worried About?""Debates over the future of the Internet are morally and politically complex. How do we balance personal privacy against what law enforcement needs to prevent copyright violations? Or child pornography? Is it acceptable to be judged by invisible computer algorithms when being served search results? When being served news articles? When being selected for additional scrutiny by airport security? Do we have a right to correct data about us? To delete it? Do we want computer systems that forget things after some number of years? "'

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Public Law 104-191, was enacted on August 21, 1996. Sections 261 through 264 of HIPAA require the Secretary of HHS to publicize standards for the electronic exchange, privacy and security of health information.
• Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule (PDF, Health & Human Services)
• Citizen journalist arrested while photographing police can take civil rights case to jury, federal judge rules (Kevin Krause, Dallas News, 7-9-18) Dallas community activist and citizen journalist Avi Adelman was arrested by DART police for criminal trespass for taking pictures in a public area of the main DART station of a man being treated by Dallas Fire Rescue. Adelman went to the site after hearing about someone overdosing on a drug called K2 on his police scanner. DART acknowledges the officer mistakenly believed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) prohibited Adelman from taking photos of the victim. “I can stay on DART property. There is no requirement that tells me I cannot take pictures...It’s called the right to photograph in public,” Adelman told Branch according to a transcript of the encounter in court filings. See also Barking Dogs.
• HIPAA & newsgathering (First Amendment Center)
• A Reporter's Guide to Medical Privacy Law (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press) Topics covered include: What is HIPAA, What records are available under HIPPA, Health care journalists' access to hospitals curtailed under HIPAA, General access to hospitals, Attitudes toward privacy rules may change in times of disaster, Confusing laws keep information confidential on college campuses, etc.
• Panelists agree HIPAA privacy rule is outdated #AHCJ16 (Jocelyn Wiener, Covering Health, AHCJ, 4-26-18) "Charles Ornstein, a senior reporter at ProPublica, kicked off a Health Journalism 2016 session about the federal government’s health privacy rule with several stories of privacy breaches" (which can be very harmful), and cites privacy breaches social media facilitate. “Is HIPAA broken?” said Joy Pritts, a a health information privacy and security consultant. “It certainly needs change. It’s certainly out of date. We really need an overarching national privacy law.” (How I regret missing the AHCJ conference!)
• How health journalists can turn privacy laws to their advantage (Annie Waldman, Tip Sheet for Association of Health Care Journalists, co-published wiht ProPublica) Government records officers frequently cite privacy restrictions to deny data requests. Here are some tips on how to overcome or sidestep these barriers.
• HIPAA Helper: Who is Revealing Your Private Medical Information? (Charles Ornstein, Annie Waldman, and Mike Tigas, ProPublica, 12-29-15). ProPublica has a whole section on Policing Patient Privacy, exploring how patient privacy violations are affecting patients and the medical care they receive.
• Myths and Facts About the HIPAA Privacy Rule, Part 1 (PDF). And here's Part 2 (January 2009)
• HIPAA: Good intentions and unintended consequences (Association of Health Care Journalists)
• HIPAA: Not So Bad After All? (Irene M. Wielawski, American Journal of Nursing, July 2009)
• HIPAA, TB, and Me (Irene M. Wielawski, Health Affairs, Narrative Matters) After a mom goes head-to-head with a college health center that is intimidated by HIPAA, she researches the law and suggests what could make it more effective. This story about a collision between public health law and HIPAA cites relevant sections of HIPAA law, allowing disclosure for public health reasons.
• HIPAA, electronic health records, and patient privacy (ComfortDying.com, with a focus on patients' viewpoint)
• Tarasoff v. Regents of University of California Tatiana Tarasoff’s parents (Plaintiffs) asserted that the four psychiatrists at Cowell Memorial Hospital of the University of California had a duty to warn them or their daughter of threats made by their patient, Prosenjit Poddar. See also Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California (Chapter 10, Public Health Law)
• Spread of Records Stirs Patient Fears Of Privacy Erosion (Theo Francis, WSJ , 12-26-06). Ms. Galvin's Insurer Studies
• Do Family, Friends' Photos Trigger HIPAA Violations? (John Commins, HealthLeaders Media, 3-8-2010). You should be able to take photos of your own child or other family member in the hospital, but you mustn't inadvertently catch another patient, or a medical health record, etc. If you are doing photographs for a story, you need a HIPAA release signed for every patient photographed. Hospital personnel may overreact about cell phone photos even of your own family members because HIPAA rules are not easy to master and personnel are duty-bound to observe them.
• 3 Approaches to the EHR Patient Control Debate (Power Your Practice), about the Patricia Galvin case.
• Can medical records be released without consent? Supreme Court refuses case. (Warren Richey, Christian Science Monitor, 10-3-11) The US Supreme Court turned aside an appeal involving the scope of privacy protections for a patient’s medical records when a state agency seeks to force a doctor to disclose those records without first obtaining a patient’s consent. (Eist v. Maryland State Bd. of Physicians) Issues of case, on SCOTUSblog: (1) Whether a state may restrict a patient's federal constitutional right to privacy by compelling a physician to disclose confidential patient records without notice to and authorization by the patient and in conflict with the physician's ethical obligations; (2) whether a state agency may simultaneously serve as investigator, prosecutor and adjudicator with respect to a licensee under its jurisdiction without amending the state's constitution which explicitly separates legislative, executive and judicial powers; and (3) whether a physician may be disciplined by a state's medical licensing board if: (a) the relevant statutory language - â€śfails to cooperate with a lawful investigationâ€ť - is unconstitutionally vague; (b) the board never notified the patients it was seeking their confidential medical records; or (c) the board's simultaneous roles as investigator, prosecutor and adjudicator deprive petitioner of his right to due process.
• Here's Looking at You: How Personal Health Information Is Being Tracked and Used (Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, California Healthcare Foundation, July 2014)
• Medical privacy (summary of info and links to more on breaches of privacy, damages and alternatives, electronic systems, many releases that are allowed by law, comparison of lists of data breaches)
• Secret video: Mercy guard threatened photo-taking mom (Sarah Okeson, News-Leader 7-19-14) Woman who took photo of her son to post on Facebook was taken to an office where she was questioned by a security guard "The idea is not to prohibit patients from capturing personal memories," said Mercy spokeswoman Sonya Kullmann. "However, we want to ensure that we protect everyone's right to privacy. That includes other patients, visitors, co-workers and providers who may not want to appear in someone else's photograph, video or recording."
• New York Hospital to Pay $2.2 Million Fine for Allowing Filming of Patients Without Consent (Charles Ornstein, Pro Publica, 4-21-16) Federal action could spell the end of emergency room reality television. This was follow-up to earlier story: When a Patient's Death is Broadcast Without Permission (Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, 1-2-15) The ABC television show "NY Med" filmed Mark Chanko's final moments without the approval of his family. Even though his face was blurred, his wife recognized him. "I saw my husband die before my eyes." The son sued.
• The Secret Documents That Detail How Patients’ Privacy Is Breached (Charles Ornstein, Policing Patient Privacy, ProPublica, 7-21-16) A federal agency sends thousands of letters a year to health providers closing out complaints about HIPAA violations. Though the government could make those letters public, it doesn’t. ProPublica has started to do so.
• Media Guidelines while on Campus (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital)
• Spread of Records Stirs Patient Fears Of Privacy Erosion (Theo Francis, WSJ, 12-26-06--behind a paywall, for subscribers only, but you may be able to read it at the library).
• HIPAA G02: HIPAA Guidance -- Safeguarding Patients’ Photographs and Recordings
• Could photographing an ED patient get you sued? (PDF, ED Legal Letter April 2009) Without consent, you are asking for a lawsuit.
ON ANOTHER, RELATED, TOPIC:
• Should Congress protect agricultural data? (Ben Berliner, FCW, The Business of Federal Technology, 11-20-17) "ensors, smart equipment and other new technologies are revolutionizing the way agricultural data is collected and analyzed, which can make operations more efficient, improve forecasting and allow for more sustainable practices. However, the rise in data collection and sharing is now raising questions about the control of farm-related data and the agreements between farmers and big ag companies. Some experts say Congress needs to play a role....The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act created standards for electronic healthcare and mandated companies strengthen health data and privacy protections, Ferrell said. But there are no similar protections for agricultural data....While any legislative remedy is a long way off, Ferrell suggested that preliminary efforts could focus on a clear definition of agricultural data. "It's not health data under HIPAA, it's not financial data under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It's something unique unto itself that may deserve efforts to actually define what those protections should be," Shannon said.
• HIPAA, electronic health records, and patient privacy

• The Right of Publicity (Helen Sedwick, Part 1 of Tricks and Traps of Using Real People in Your Writing, on The Book Designer, 7-31-15)
• Midler v. Ford Motor Co.. Ford Motor Co.'s advertising agency tried to hire Bette Midler to sing for commercials, and when she said no, they hired her backup singer Ula Hedwig. Midler sued alleging invasion of right of publicity. She won on appeal.
• Personality rights (Wikipedia: "The right of publicity, often called personality rights, is the right of an individual to control the commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness, or other unequivocal aspects of one's identity. It is generally considered a property right as opposed to a personal right, and as such, the validity of the Right of Publicity can survive the death of the individual (to varying degrees depending on the jurisdiction). In the United States, the Right of Publicity is a state law-based right, as opposed to federal, and recognition of the right can vary from state to state."
• U.S. states that recognize rights of publicity (Wikipedia)
• Right of Publicity: An Overview (Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School)
• Brief History of RoP (Jonathan Faber's Right of Publicity site). See also his entries on Notable Cases .
• The rights of publicity and privacy (Public Domain Sherpa) Using a work with a recognizable person in it? Don't use it commercially without knowing about the rights of publicity and privacy.

• Photographers - What To Do If You Are Stopped Or Detained For Taking Photographs (Know Your Rights, American Civil Liberties Union) Taking photographs and video of things that are plainly visible in public spaces is a constitutional right—and that includes transportation facilities, the outside of federal buildings, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties.
• Suppression of Photographers During Civil Rights Movement an Important Reminder for Today (Jay Stanley, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, ACLU, 5-31-17) The contours of today’s battles over the First Amendment rights of photographers can also be seen in the civil rights movement’s history.
• The Photographer’s Right (Bert P. Krages II, attorney) The Photographer’s Right is a PDF document that is loosely based on the ACLU Bust Card. You may make copies and carry them in your wallet, pocket, or camera bag to give you quick access to information about your rights and obligations concerning confrontations over photography. You may distribute the guide to others, provided that such distribution is not done for commercial gain and credit is given to the author.
• Know Your Rights as a Photographer! ( Bob Vishneski, Photography Life, 3-12-17)
• Filming and Photography the Police (ACLU)
• Federal Appeals Court Hears Crucial Case on First Amendment and Photography (Jay Stanley, ACLU, 5-12-17) A number of states have passed these “Ag Gag laws.” Idaho’s version makes it a crime to use a misrepresentation to gain access to, or employment at, an “agricultural production facility”—places like factory farms and slaugterhouses, but also encompassing a bunch of other places by the way they define this. It’s aimed primarily at journalists and undercover investigators. Idaho’s Ag Gag statute also makes it a crime to take video or audio recordings in these places without the owner’s permission....This is specifically targeted at organizations like Mercy for Animals and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which have exposed animal cruelty and put it on the Internet." [An explanation of the issues and where things stand as of May 2017.]

PepsiGate’ Rocks the Science Blogging World (David Disalvo, TrueSlant 7-8-10). Roughly: SEED magazine, owner of the well-regarded ScienceBlogs network, "decided to allow Pepsi to have its own blog on the network, called 'Food Frontiers'–which, of course, they would pay for, not unlike a block of continuous advertising space. Many bloggers at ScienceBlogs are not happy about this. The standard for any credible science journalism network is that writers earn their space on merit, not because they have products to pitch." The bottom line, writes Disalvo: "if you’re going to mix marketing with science journalism (or, really, any journalism worth its salt), then you’d better be damn sure to clarify that the commercial content is just that: PAID FOR CONTENT." See PepsiGate linkfest (Bora Zivkovic, on A Blog Around the Clock, posts links to all key posts about the event).

• Anti-Plagiarism Day (Jane Smith)
• Finally, not quite on the topic of plagiarism, but a kissing cousin:The Shadow Scholar ("Ed Dante," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11-12-10). The man who writes your students' papers tells his story. Ghostwriter of academic papers and homework tells how he makes a living writing papers for a custom-essay company and describes the extent of student cheating he has observed. Long, fascinating, and disheartening article.

ProPublica Editor Paul Steiger Discusses Emerging Ethical Questions for Journalists (Mike Webb presents, on ProPublica 10-21-10). ProPublica’s editor-in-chief points out four issues facing journalists today: "the blurred line between presentation of fact and opinion; the quest for building a larger audience versus the need for journalism of substance and civic importance; the new business challenges facing the industry; and the need for greater transparency from news organizations." Says Steiger,"If we create business models that depend largely on page views, we should not be surprised if they drive publishers to favor content with a high prospect of 'going viral' over content that is primarily thought-provoking, or challenging, or discomfiting, or even educational."

Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties ran the headline on Gardiner Harris's story about Frederick K. Goodwin, "the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drugmakers have been uncovered by Senator Charles E. Grassley. Goodwin, a former director of the NIMH and host of the popular public radio program “The Infinite Mind,” earned at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers. The program's producer was unaware of the fees, report PR Watch.org and PR Web.

Right to Know Committee, the Association of Health Care Journalists' page of links. AHCJ is particularly concerned about health care organizations that restrict access to information about research simply because they want to control the news (often doing so in the name of HIPAA).

The Shadow Scholar ("Ed Dante," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11-12-10). The man who writes your students' papers tells his story. Ghostwriter of academic papers and homework tells how he makes a living writing papers for a custom-essay company and describes the extent of student cheating he has observed. Long, fascinating, and disheartening article.
For example: "I, who have no name, no opinions, and no style, have written so many papers at this point, including legal briefs, military-strategy assessments, poems, lab reports, and, yes, even papers on academic integrity, that it's hard to determine which course of study is most infested with cheating. But I'd say education is the worst. I've written papers for students in elementary-education programs, special-education majors, and ESL-training courses. I've written lesson plans for aspiring high-school teachers, and I've synthesized reports from notes that customers have taken during classroom observations. I've written essays for those studying to become school administrators, and I've completed theses for those on course to become principals." His earnings the year he is writing: $66,000 a year.
This topic was covered earlier and once over lightly in The Term Paper Artist by Nick Mamatas (The Smart Set, Drexel University, 10-10=08). Nick was also interviewed by NPR (The Paper Market, On the Media, 11-28-10).

Wronging a person through speech (Judaism 101 on Speech & Lashon Ha-Ra). "Gossip and slander are serious sins in Judaism. Judaism forbids causing any deception or embarrassment through speech. It is forbidden even if the statement is true. There are some exceptions that allow tale-bearing." And so on!

The National Security Archive established the "not-so-coveted" Rosemary Award in 2005, named for Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon's secretary, who claimed in testimony that she accidentally erased 18-and-a-half minutes of a crucial Watergate tape. "Bestowed annually to highlight the lowlights of government secrecy, the Rosemary Award has recognized a rogue's gallery of open government scofflaws, including the CIA, the Treasury Department, the Air Force, the FBI, the Justice Department, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper." Among tidbits on this page: "The unfortunate silver lining of Hillary Clinton inappropriately appropriating public records as her own is that she likely preserved her records much more comprehensively than her State Department colleagues, most of whose e-mails have probably been lost under [State Department CIO Steven] Taylor's IT leadership."

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." ~ Winston Churchill

The FAQs for the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). For example, credit card fraud and other types of fraud (escrow services, investment ), internet distortion, Nigerian letter or '419', phishing or spoofing, reshipping, spam, etc.

" There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches." ~ Ray Bradbury

“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot."
~ Czeslaw Milosz

"Big Brother" issues
Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon apologized for remotely deleting digital editions of George Orwell's 1984 from customers' Kindle reading devices after a copyright dispute, writes Brad Stone in Amazon Faces a Fight Over Its E-Books (NY Times 7-26-09)
Stone quotes some critics on the advantages of such "tethered systems"--for example, for restoring content customers inadvertently lose, or for helping companies enforce copyright laws. "But critics say that any device capable of interfering with how its owner uses media is potentially dangerous. 'I worry that systems like these tethered appliances are gifts to regulators,' said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and author of the book, The Future of the Internet — and How to Stop It. Mr. Zittrain predicts that governments in some parts of the world will want to use it 'like a line item veto for content,' removing objectionable sentences or chapters in some books."

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?
~ Rabbi Hillel

"The future has an ancient heart." ~ Carlo Levi

"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail."
~ from William Faulkner's banquet speech, on receiving the 1949 Nobel Award for Literature

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
~Oscar Wilde